f 


*2 


REESE   LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

Received  *-/%&*+£    ,,$sf~ 


A-ccessions  No. 


S/ulj 


C*i 


ill 


Plate    1. 

3?irSt  conditions  of  accumulation  and  fusion, 
in,  motionless  snow 


DEUCALION. 


COLLECTED  STUDIES 


OF  THE 


LAPSE    OF  WAVES,   AND    LIFE  OF  STONES. 


BY 


JOHN  KUSKIN,  D.C.L.,  LL.D., 

HONORARY   STUDENT    OF    CHRISTCHURCH,    OXFORD;     AND     HONORARY     FELLOW    OP 
CORPUS    CHRISTI    COLLEGE,   OXFORD. 


jadXa  TtohXd 
ovped  re  6Hioevray  Bdkatitid  re  jfoj/ 


VOL.  I. 


NEW  YORK: 

JOHN  WILEY  &  SONS, 
15  ASTOR  PLACE. 

1886. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  I. 


V- 

, 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  ALPS  AND  JUBA  7 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  THREE  ^ERAS 23 

CHAPTER  III. 
OF  ICE-CREAM  .  35 


CHAPTER  IV. 
LABITUR,  ET  LABETUR    ........       50 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  VALLEY  OF  CLUSE 64 

CHAPTER  VI. 
OF  BUTTER  AND  HONEY .        .        73 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  IRIS  OF  THE  EARTH 84 

C                                         CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  ALPHABET 122 


IV  CONTENTS. 

\ 
CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGE 

FIRE  AND  WATER 133 

CHAPTER  X. 
THIRTY  YEARS  SINCE 150 

CHAPTER  XI. 
OP  SILICA  IN  LAVAS 167 

CHAPTER  XII. 
YEWDALE  AND  ITS  STREAMLETS 179 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
OP  STELLAR  SILICA 209 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

SCHISMA  MONTIUM 217 


APPENDIX 243 

INDEX  247 


DEUCALION. 


INTKODUCTIOK 

BRANTWOOD,  13th  July,  1875. 

I  HAVE  been  glancing  lately  at  many  biographies,  and 
have  been  much  struck  by  the  number  of  deaths  which  oc- 
cur between  the  ages  of  fifty  and  sixty,  (and,  for  the  most 
part,  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  decade,)  in  cases  where  the 
brain  has  been  much  used  emotionally  :  or  perhaps  it  would 
be  more  accurate  to  say,  where  the  heart,  and  the  faculties 
of  perception  connected  with  it,  have  stimulated  the  brain- 
action.  Supposing  such  excitement  to  be  temperate, 
equable,  and  joyful,  I  have  no  doubt  the  tendency  of  it 
would  be  to  prolong,  rather  than  depress,  the  vital  ener- 
gies. Bat  the  emotions  of  indignation,  grief,  controversial 
anxiety  and  vanity,  or  hopeless,  and  therefore  uncontend- 
ing,  scorn,  are  all  of  them  as  deadly  to  the  body  as  poison- 
ous air  or  polluted  water ;  and  when  I  reflect  how  much 
of  the  active  part  of  my  past  life  has  been  spent  in  these 
states, — and  that  what  may  remain  to  me  of  life  can  never 
more  be  in  any  other, — I  begin  to  ask  myself,  with  some- 


2  INTKODUCTTON. 

what  pressing  arithmetic,  how  much  time  is  likely  to  be 
left  me,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  to  complete  the  various  de- 
signs for  which,  until  past  fifty,  I  was  merely  collecting 
materials. 

Of  these  materials,  I  have  now  enough  by  me  for  a  most 
interesting  (in  my  own  opinion)  history  of  fifteenth-cen- 
tury Florentine  art,  in  six  octavo  volumes;  an  analysis  of 
the  Attic  art  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  in  three  volumes  ; 
an  exhaustive  history  of  northern  thirteenth-century  art,  in 
ten  volumes ;  a  life  of  Turner,  with  analysis  of  modern 
landscape  art,  in  four  volumes ;  a  life  of  Walter  Scott, 
with  analysis  of  modern  epic  art,  in  seven  volumes ;  a  life 
of  Xenophon,  with  analysis  of  the  general  principles  of 
Education,  in  ten  volumes  ;  a  commentary  on  Hesiod,  with 
final  analysis  of  the  principles  of  Political  Economy,  in 
nine  volumes;  and  a  general  description  of  the  geology 
and  botany  of  the  Alps,  in  twenty-four  volumes. 

Of  these  works,  though  all  carefully  projected,  and  some 
alread}T  in  progress, — yet,  allowing  for  the  duties  of  my 
Professorship,  possibly  continuing  at  Oxford,  and  for  the 
increasing  correspondence  relating  to  Fors  Clavigera, — it 
does  not  seem  to  me,  even  in  my  most  sanguine  moments, 
now  probable  that  I  shall  live  to  effect  such  conclusion  as 
would  be  satisfactory  to  me ;  and  I  think  it  will  therefore 
be  only  prudent,  however  humiliating,  to  throw  together 
at  once,  out  of  the  heap  of  loose  stones  collected  for  this 
many- towered  city  which  I  am  not  able  to  finish,  such 
fragments  of  good  marble  as  may  perchance  be  useful  to 


INTRODUCTION.  6 

future  builders ;  and  to  clear  away,  out  of  sight,  the  lime 
and  other  rubbish  which  I  meant  for  mortar. 

And  because  it  is  needful,  for  my  health's  sake,  hence- 
forward to  do  as  far  as  possible  what  I  find  pleasure,  or 
at  least  tranquillity,  in  doing,  I  am  minded  to  collect  first 
what  I  have  done  in  geology  and  botany ;  for  indeed,  had 
it  not  been  for  grave  mischance  in  earlier  life,  (partly  con- 
sisting in  the  unlucky  gift,  from  an  affectionate  friend,  of 
Rogers'  poems,  as  related  in  Fors  Clavigera  for  August  of 
this  year,)  my  natural  disposition  for  these  sciences  would 
certainly  long  ago  have  made  me  a  leading  member  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  ;  or 
— who  knows? — even  raised  me  to  the  position  which  it 
was  always  the  summit  of  my  earthly  ambition  to  attain, 
that  of  President  of  the  Geological  Society.  For,  indeed, 
I  began  when  I  was  only  twelve  years  old,  a  '  Mineralogi 
cal  Dictionary,'  intended  to  supersede  everything  done  by 
Werner  and  Mohs,  (and  written  in  a  shorthand  composed 
of  crystallographic  signs  now  entirely  unintelligible  to 
me,) — and  year  by  year  have  endeavoured,  until  very  lately, 
to  keep  abreast  with  the  rising  tide  of  geological  knowl- 
edge ;  sometimes  even,  I  believe,  pushing  my  way  into 
little  creeks  in  advance  of  the  general  wave.  I  am  not 
careful  to  assert  for  myself  the  petty  advantage  of  priority 
in  discovering  what,  some  day  or  other,  somebody  must 
certainly  have  discovered.  But  I  think  it  due  to  my  read- 
ers, that  they  may  receive  what  real  good  there  may  be  in 
these  studies  with  franker  confidence,  to  tell  them  that  the 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

first  sun-portrait  ever  taken  of  the  Matterhorn,  (and  as  far 
as  I  know  of  any  Swiss  mountain  whatever,)  was  taken  by 
me  in  the  year  1849 ;  that  the  outlines,  (drawn  by  meas- 
urement of  angle,)  given  in  '  Modern  Painters '  of  the  Cer- 
vin,  and  aiguilles  of  Chamouni,  are  at  this  day  demonstra- 
ble by  photography  as  the  trustworthiest  then  in  existence ; 
that  I  was  the  first  to  point  out,  in  my  lecture  given  in  the 
Royal  Institution,*  the  real  relation  of  the  vertical  cleav- 
ages to  the  stratification,  in  the  limestone  ranges  belonging 
to  the  chalk  formation  in  Savoy ;  and  that  my  analysis  of 
the  structure  of  agates,  ('  Geological  Magazine,')  remains, 
even  to  the  present  day,  the  only  one  which  has  the  slight- 
est claim  to  accuracy  of  distinction,  or  completeness  of 
arrangement.  I  propose  therefore,  if  time  be  spared  me, 
to  collect,  of  these  detached  studies,  or  lectures,  what  seem 
to  me  deserving  of  preservation ;  together  with  the  more 
carefully  written  chapters  on  geology  and  botany  in  the 
latter  volumes  of  '  Modern  Painters ; '  adding  the  memo- 
randa I  have  still  by  me  in  manuscript,  and  such  further 
illustrations  as  may  occur  to  me  on  revision.  Which  frag- 
mentary work, — trusting  that  among  the  flowers  or  stones 
let  fall  by  other  hands  it  may  yet  find  service  and  life, — 
I  have  ventured  to  dedicate  to  Proserpina  and  Deucalion. 
Why  not  rather  to  Eve,  or  at  least  to  one  of  the  wives 
of  Lamech,  and  to  Noah  ?  asks,  perhaps,  the  pious  modern 
reader. 

*  Reported  in  the  '  Journal  de  Geneve,'  date  ascertainable,  but  of  no 
consequence. 


INTRODUCTION.  ^ 

Because  I  think  it  well  that  the  young  student  should 
first  learn  the  myths  of  the  betrayal  and  redemption,  as 
the  Spirit  which  moved  on  the  face  of  the  wide  first 
waters,  taught  them  to  the  heathen  world.  And  because, 
in  this  power,  Proserpine  and  Deucalion  are  at  least  as 
true  as  Eve  or  Noah ;  and  all  four  together  incomparably 
truer  than  the  Darwinian  Theory.  And,  in  general,  the 
reader  may  take  it  for  a  first  principle,  both  in  science  and 
literature,  that  the  feeblest  myth  is  better  than  the  strong- 
est theory:  the  one  recording  a  natural  impression  on  the 
imaginations  of  great  men,  and  of  unpretending  multi- 
tudes ;  the  other,  an  unnatural  exertion  of  the  wits  of  lit- 
tle men,  and  half-wits  of  impertinent  multitudes. 

It  chanced,  this  morning,  as  I  sat  down  to  finish  my 
preface,  that  I  had,  for  my  introductory  reading  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Esdras ;  in  which,  though 
often  read  carefully  before,  I  had  never  enough  noticed 
the  curious  verse,  "  Blood  shall  drop  out  of  wood,  and  the 
stone  shall  give  his  voice,  and  the  people  shall  be  troub- 
led." Of  which  verse,  so  far  as  I  can  gather  the  mean- 
ing from  the  context,  and  from  the  rest  of  the  chapter, 
the  intent  is,  that  in  the  time  spoken  of  by  the  prophet, 
which,  if  not  our  own,  is  one  exactly  corresponding  to  it, 
the  deadness  of  men  to  all  noble  things  shall  be  so  great, 
that  the  sap  of  trees  shall  be  more  truly  blood,  in  God's 
sight,  than  their  hearts'  blood  ;  and  the  silence  of  men,  in 
praise  of  all  noble  things,  so  great,  that  the  stones  shall  cry 
out,  in  God's  hearing,  instead  of  their  tongues ;  and  the 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

rattling  of  the  shingle  on  the  beach,  and  the  roar  of  the 
rocks  driven  by  the  torrent,  be  truer  Te  Deum  than  the 
thunder  of  all  their  ch<airs.  The  writings  of  modern 
scientific  prophets  teach  us  to  anticipate  a  day  when  even 
these  lower  voices  shall  be  also  silent ;  and  leaf  cease  to 
wave,  and  stream  to  murmur,  in  the  grasp  of  an  eternal 
cold.  But  it  may  be,  that  rather  out  of  the  mouths  of 
babes  and  sucklings  a  better  peace  may  be  promised  to  the 
redeemed  Jerusalem ;  and  the  strewn  branches,  and  low- 
laid  stones,  remain  at  rest  at  the  gates  of  -the  city,  built  in 
unity  with  herself,  and  saying  with  her  human  voice,  "  My 
King  cometh." 


CHAPTEK  I. 

THE   ALPS   AND    JUEA. 

(Part  of  a  Lecture  given  in  the  Museum  of  Oxford,  in 
October,  1874.) 

1.  IT  is  often  now  a  question  with  me  whether  the 
persons  who  appointed  me  to  this  Professorship  have 
been  disappointed,  or  pleased,  by  the  little  pains  I  have 
hitherto  taken  to  advance  the  study  of  landscape.  That  it 
is  my  own  favourite  branch  of  painting  seemed  to  me  a 
reason  for  caution  in  pressing  it  on  your  attention ;  and 
the  range  of  art-practice  which  I  have  hitherto  indicated 
for  you,  seems  to  me  more  properly  connected  with  the 
higher  branches  of  philosophical  inquiry  native  to  the 
University.  But,  as  the  second  term  of  my  Professorship 
will  expire  next  year,  and  as  I  intend  what  remains  of  it  to 
be  chiefly  employed  in  giving  some  account  of  the  art  of 
Florence  and  Umbria,  it  seemed  to  me  proper,  before  en- 
tering on  that  higher  subject,  to  set  before  you  some  of 
the  facts  respecting  the  great  elements  of  landscape,  which 
I  first  stated  thirty  years  ago ;  arranging  them  now  in  such 
form  as  my  farther  study  enables  me  to  give  them.  I  shall 
not,  indeed,  be  able  to  do  this  in  a  course  of  spoken  lee- 


8  DEUCALION". 

tures  ;  nor  do  I  wish  to  do  so.  Much  of  what  I  desire  that 
you  should  notice  is  already  stated,  as  well  as  I  can  do  it, 
in  '  Modern  Painters  ; '  and  it  would  be  waste  of  time  to 
recast  it  in  the  form  of  address.  But  I  should  not  feel 
justified  in  merely  reading  passages  of  my  former  writings 
to  you  from  this  chair ;  and  will  only  ask  your  audience, 
here,  of  some  additional  matters,  as,  for  instance,  to-day, 
of  some  observations  I  have  been  making  recently,  in 
order  to  complete  the  account  given  in  i  Modern  Painters,' 
of  the  structure  and  aspect  of  the  higher  Alps. 

2.  Not  that  their  structure — (let  me  repeat,  once  more, 
what  I  am  well  assured  you  will,  in  spite  of  my  frequent 
assertion,  find  difficult  to  believe,) — not  that  their  struc- 
ture is  any  business  of  yours  or  mine,  as  students  of 
practical  art.  All  investigations  of  internal  anatomy, 
whether  in  plants,  rocks,  or  animals,  are  hurtful  to  the 
finest  sensibilities  and  instincts  of  form.  But  very  few 
of  us  have  any  such  sensibilities  to  be  injured ;  and  that 
we  may  distinguish  the  excellent  art  which  they  have  pro- 
duced, we  must,  by  duller  processes,  become  cognizant  of 
the  facts.  The  Torso  of  the  Vatican  was  not  wrought  by 
help  from  dissection ;  yet  all  its  supreme  qualities  could 
only  be  explained  by  an  anatomical  master.  And  these 
drawings  of  the  Alps  by  Turner  are  in  landscape,  what 
the  Elgin  marbles  or  the  Torso  are  in  sculpture.  There  is 
nothing  else  approaching  them,  or  of  their  order.  Turner 
made  them  before  geology  existed  ;  but  it  is  only  by  help 
of  geology  that  I  can  prove  their  power. 


I.    THE   ALPS   AND   JUKA. 


i3.  I  chanced,  the  other  day,  to  take  up  a  number  of  the 
'  Alpine  Journal  '  (May,  1871,)  in  which  there  was  a  review 
by  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  of  Mr.  Whymper's  '  Scrambles 
among  the  Alps,'  in  which  it  is  said  that  "  if  the  Alpine 
Club  has  done  nothing  else,  it  has  taught  us  for  the  first 
time  really  to  see  the  mountains.^  I  have  not  the  least 
idea  whom  Mr.  Stephen  means  by  '  us  ;  '  but  I  can  assure 
him  that  mountains  had  been  seen  by  several  people  before 
the  nineteenth  century^  that  both  Hesiod  and  Pindar  oc- 
casionally had  eyes  for  Parnassus,  Yirgil  for  the  Apen- 
nines, and  Scott  for  the  Grampians  ;  and  without  speaking 
of  Turner,  or  of  any  other  accomplished  artist,  here  is  a 

•little  bit  of  old-fashioned  Swiss  drawing  of  the  two  Mythens, 
above  the  central  town  of  Switzerland,*  showing  a  degree 
of  affection,  intelligence,  and  tender  observation,  compared 
to  which  our  modern  enthusiasm  is,  at  best,  childish  ;  and 
commonly  also  as  shallow  as  it  is  vulgar. 

tf^.  Believe  me,  gentlemen,  your  power  of  seeing  moun- 
tains cannot  be  developed  either  by  your  vanity,  your  cu- 
riosity, or  your  love  of  muscular  exercise.  It  depends  on 
the  cultivation  of  the  instrument  of  sight  itself,  and  of 
the  soul  that  uses  it.  As  soon  as  you  can  see  mountains 
rightly,  you  will  see  hills  also,  and  valleys,  with  consider- 
able interest  ;  and  a  great  many  other  things  in  Switzer- 
land with  which  you  are  at  present  but  poorly  acquainted. 
The  bluntness  of  your  present  capacity  of  ocular  sensa 


*  In  the  Educational  Series  of  my  Oxford  Schools. 
1* 


10  DEUCALION. 

tion  is  too  surely  proved  by  your  being  unable  to  enjoy  any 
of  the  sweet  lowland  country,  which  is  incomparably  more 
beautiful  than  the  summit*  of  the  central  range,  and  which 
is  meant  to  detain  you,  also,  by  displaying — if  you  have 
patience  to  observe  them — the  loveliest  aspects  of  that 
central  range  itself,  in  its  real  majesty  of  proportion,  and 
mystery  of  power. 

5.  For,  gentlemen,  little  as  you  may  think  it,  you  can 
no  more  see  the  Alps  from  the  Col  du  Geant,  or  the  top 
of  the  Matterhorn,  than  the  pastoral  scenery  of  Switzer- 
land from  the  railroad  carriage.     If  you  want  to  see  the 
skeletons  of  the  Alps,  you  may  go  to  Zermatt  or  Cha- 
mouni ;  but  if  you  want  to  see  the  body  and  soul  of  the 
Alps,  you  must  stay  awhile  among  the  Jura,  and  in  the  Ber- 
nese plain.     And,  in  general,  the  way  to  see  mountains,  is 
to  take  a  knapsack  and  a  walking-stick ;  leave  alpenstocks 
to  be  flourished  in  each  other's  faces,  and  between  one  an- 
other's legs,  by  Cook's  tourists ;  and  try  to  find  some  com- 
panionship in  yourself  with  yourself ;  and  not  to  be  de- 
pendent for  your  good  cheer  either  on  the  gossip  of  the 
table-d'hote,   or    the   hail-fellow   and   well    met,  hearty 
though  it  be,  of  even  the  pleasantest  of  celebrated  guides./' 

6.  Whether,  however,  you  think  it  necessary  or  not,  for 
true  sight  of  the  Alps,  to  stay  awhile  among  the  Jura  or 
in  the  Bernese  fields,  very  certainly,  for  understanding,  or 
questioning,  of  the  Alps,  it  is  wholly  necessary  to  do  so. 
If  you  look  back  to  the  lecture,  which  I  gave  as  the  fourth 
of  my  inaugural  series,  on  the  Relation  of  Art  to  Use,  you 


I.    THE   ALPS   AND   JUEA.  11 

will  see  it  stated,  as  a  grave  matter  of  reproach  to  the  mod- 
ern traveller,  that,  crossing  the  great  plain  of  Switzerland 
nearly  every  summer,  he  never  thinks  of  inquiring  why 
it  is  a  plain,  and  why  the  mountains  to  the  south  of  it  are 
mountains. 

7.  For  solution  of  which,  as  it  appears  to  me,  not  un- 
natural inquiry,  all  of  you,  who  have  taken  any  interest 
in  geology  whatever,  must  recognize  the  importance  of 
studying  the  calcareous  ranges  which  form  the  outlying 
steps  of  the  Alps  on  the  north  ;  and  which,  in  the  lecture 
just  referred  to,  I  requested  you  to  examine  for  their  crag 
scenery,  markedly  developed  in  the  Stockhorn,  Pilate,  and 
Sentis  of  Appenzell.  The  arrangements  of  strata  in  that 
great  calcareous  belt  give  the  main  clue  to  the  mode  of  el- 
evation of  the  central  chain,  the  relations  of  the  rocks  over 
the  entire  breadth  of  North  Switzerland  being,  roughly,  as 
in  this  first  section : 

FIG.  1. 


A.  Jura  limestones,  moderately  undulating  in  the  suc- 

cessive chains  of  Jura. 

B.  Sandstones  of  the  great  Swiss  plain. 

C.  Pebble  breccias  of  the  first  ranges  of  Alpine  hills. 

D.  Chalk  formations  violently  contorted,  forming  the 

rock  scenery  of  which  I  have  j  ust  spoken. 


12  DEUCALION. 

E.  Metamorphic  rocks  lifted  by  the  central  Alps. 

F.  Central  gneissic  or  granitic  mass,  narrow  in  Mont 

Blanc,  but  of  enormous  extent  southward  from  St. 
Gothard. 

8.  Now  you  may,  for  first  grasp  of  our  subject,  imagine 
these  several  formations  all  fluted  longitudinally,  like  a 
Gothic  moulding,  thus  forming  a  series  of  ridges  and  val- 
leys parallel  to  the  Alps  ; — such  as  the  valley  of  Chamou- 
ni,  the    Simmenthal,  and  the  great  vale  containing  the 
lakes  of  Thun  and  Brienz  ;  to  which  longitudinal  valleys 
we  now  obtain  access  through  gorges  or  defiles,  for  the 
most  part  cut  across  the  formations,  and  giving  geological 
sections  all  the  way  from  the  centres  of  the  Alps  to  the 
plain. 

9.  Get  this  first  notion  very  simply  and  massively  set  in 
your  thoughts.     Longitudinal  valleys,  parallel   with   the 
beds ;  more  or  less  extended  and  soft  in  contour,  and  often 
occupied  by  lakes.     Cross   defiles   like   that  of   Lauter- 
brunnen,  the  Yia  Mala,  and  the  defile  of  Gondo  ;  cut  down 
across  the  beds,  and  traversed  by  torrents,  but  rarely  occu- 
pied by  lakes.     The  bay  of  Uri  is  the  only  perfect  instance 
in  Switzerland  of  a  portion  of  lake  in  a  diametrically  cross 
valley ;  the  crossing  arms  of  the  lake  Lucerne  mark  the 
exactly  rectangular  schism  of  the  forces ;  the  main  direc- 
tion being  that  of  the  lakes  of  Kussnacht  and  Alpnacht, 
3arried  on  through  those  of  Sarnen  and  Lungern,  and 
across  the  low  intervening  ridge  of  the  Brunig,  joining  the 
depressions  of  Brienz  and  Thun ;  of  which  last  lake  the 


I.    THE   ALPS   AND   JtJBA.  , 

lower  reach,  however,  is  obliquely  transverse.  Forty  miles 
of  the  Lago  Maggiore,  or,  including  the  portion  of  lake  now 
filled  by  delta,  fifty,  from  Baveno  to  Bellinzona,  are  in  the 
longitudinal  valley  which  continues  to  the  St.  Bernardino  : 
and  the  entire  length  of  the  lake  of  Como  is  the  continua- 
tion of  the  great  lateral  Yaltelline. 

10.  Now  such  structure  of   parallel  valley  and  cross 
defile  would  be  intelligible  enough,  if  it  were  confined  to 
the  lateral  stratified  ranges.     But,  as  you  are  well  aware, 
the  two  most  notable  longitudinal  valleys  in  the  Alps  are 
cut  right  along  the  heart  of  their  central  gneissic  chain  ; 
how  much  by  dividing  forces  in  the  rocks  themselves,  and 
how  much  by  the  sources  of  the  two  great  rivers  of  France 
and  Germany,  there  will  yet  be  debate  among  geologists 
for    many   a    day   to   come.      For   us,  let  the    facts   at 
least  be  clear ;  the  questions  definite ;  but  all  debate  de- 
clined. 

11.  All  lakes  among  the  Alps,  except  the  little  green 
pool  of  Lungern,  and  a  few  small  tarns  on  the   cols,  are 
quite  at  the  bottom  of  the  hills.     We  are  so  accustomed 
to  this  condition,  that  we  never  think  of  it  as  singular. 
But  in  its  unexceptional  character,  it  is  extremely  singular. 
How  comes  it  to  pass,  think  you,  that  through  all  that 
wilderness  of  mountain — raised,  in  the  main  mass  of  it, 
some  six  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  so  that  there  is  no 
col  lower, — there  is  not  a  single  hollow  shut  in  so  as  to 
stay  the  streams  of  it ; — that  no  valley  is  ever  barred  across 
by  a  ridge  which  can  keep  so  much  as  ten  feet  of  watei 


14  DEUCALION. 

calm  above  it, — that  every  such  ridge  that  once  existed 
has  been  cut  through,  so  as  to  let  the  stream  escape  ? 

I  put  this  question  in.passing ;  we  will  return  to  it :  let 
me  first  ask  you  to  examine  the  broad  relations  of  the 
beds  that  are  cut  through.  My  typical  section,  Fig.  1,  is 
stringently  simple ;  it  must  be  much  enriched  and  mod- 
ified to  fit  any  locality ;  but  in  the  main  conditions  it  is 
applicable  to  the  entire  north  side  of  the  Alps,  from  An- 
necy  to  St.  Gall. 

12.  You  have  first— (I  read  from  left  to  right,  or  north 
to  south,  being  obliged  to  do  so  because  all  Studer's  sec- 
tions  are   thus   taken) — this   mass   of   yellow  limestone, 
called  of  the  Jura,  from  its  development  in  that  chain ; 
but  forming  an  immense  tract  of  the  surface  of  France 
also;   and,  as  you  well  know,  this   our  city  of  Oxford 
stands  on  one  of  its  softer  beds,  and  is  chiefly  built  of  it. 
We  may,  I  think,  without  entering  any  forbidden  region 
of  theory,  assume  that  this  Jura  limestone  extends  under 
the  plain  of  Switzerland,  to  reappear  where  we  again  find 
it  on  the  flanks  of  the  great  range ;  where  on  the  top  of 
it  the  beds  drawn  with  fine  lines  in  my  section  correspond 
generally  to  the  date  of  our  English  chalk,  though  they 
are  far  from  white  in  the  Alps.     Curiously  adjusted  to 
the  chalk  beds,  rather  than  superimposed,  we  have  these 
notable  masses  of  pebble  breccia,  which  bound  the  sand- 
stones of  the  great  Swiss  plain. 

13.  I  have  drawn  that  portion  of  the  section  a  little 
more  boldly  in  projection,  to  remind  you  of  the  great 


I.    THE   ALPS   AND   JURA.  15 

Rigi  promontory ;  and  of  the  main  direction  of  the  slope 
of  these  beds,  with  their  backs  to  the  Alps,  and  their  es- 
carpments to  the  plain.  Both  these  points  are  of  curious 
importance.  Have  you  ever  considered  the  reason  of 
the  fall  of  the  Rossberg,  the  most  impressive  physical 
catastrophe  that  has  chanced  in  Europe  in  modern  times  ? 
Few  mountains  in  Switzerland  looked  safer.  It  was  of 
inconsiderable  height,  of  very  moderate  steepness  ;  but  its 
beds  lay  perfectly  straight,  and  that  over  so  large  a  space, 
that  when  the  clay  between  two  of  them  got  softened  by 
rain,  one  slipped  off  the  other.  Now  this  mathematical 
straightness  is  characteristic  of  these  pebble  beds, — not 
universal  in  them,  but  characteristic  of  them,  and  of 
them  only.  The  limestones  underneath  are  usually,  as  you 
see  in  this  section,  violently  contorted ;  if  not  contorted, 
they  are  at  least  so  irregular  in  the  bedding  that  you  can't 
in  general  find  a  surface  of  a  furlong  square  which  will 
not  either  by  its  depression,  or  projection,  catch  and  notch 
into  the  one  above  it,  so  as  to  prevent  its  sliding.  Also 
the  limestones  are  continually  torn,  or  split,  across  the 
beds.  But  the  breccias,  though  in  many  places  they 
suffer  decomposition,  are  curiously  free  from  fissures  and 
rents.  The  hillside  remains  unshattered  unless  it  comes 
down  in  a  mass.  But  their  straight  bedding,  as  com- 
pared with  the  twisted  limestone,  is  the  iiotablest  point 
in  them ;  and  see  how  very  many  difficulties  are  gathered 
in  the  difference.  The  crushed  masses  of  limestone  are 
supposed  to  have  been  wrinkled  together  by  the  lateral 


16  DEUCALION. 

thrust  of  the  emerging  protogines;  and  these  pebble  beds 
to  have  been  raised  into  a  gable,  or  broken  into  a  series 
of  colossal  fragments  set  over  each  other  like  tiles,  all 
along  the  south  shore  of  the  Swiss  plain,  by  the  same  lat- 
eral thrust ;  nay,  "  though  we  may  leave  in  doubt,"  says 
Studer,  "  by  what  cause  the  folded  forms  of  the  Jura  may 
have  been  pushed  back,  there  yet  remains  to  us,  for  the 
explanation  of  this  gabled  form  of  the  Nagelfluh,  hardly 
any  other  choice  than  to  adopt  the  opinion  of  a  lateral 
pressure  communicated  by  the  Alps  to  the  tertiary  bot- 
tom. "We  have  often  found  in  the  outer  limestone  chains 
themselves  clear  evidence  of  a  pressure  going  out  from 
the  inner  Alps ;  and  the  pushing  of  the  older  over  the 
younger  formations  along  the  flank  of  the  limestone  hills, 
leaves  hardly  any  other  opinion  possible." 

14.  But  if  these  pebble  beds  have  been  heaved  up  by 
the  same  lateral  thrust,  how  is  it  that  a  force  which  can 

FIG.  2. 


bend  limestone  like  leather,  cannot  crush  anywhere,  these 
pebble  beds  into  the  least  confusion?  Consider  the  scale 
on  which  operations  are  carried  on,  and  the  forces  of  which 
this  sentence  of  Studer's  so  serenely  assumes  the  action. 
Here,  A.  Fig.  2,  is  his  section  of  the  High  Sentis  of  Appen- 


I.    THE    ALPS    AND    JTJKA. 

zell,  of  which  the  height  is  at  least,  in  the  parts  thus  bent, 
6,000  feet.  And  here,  B,  Fig.  2,  are  some  sheets  of  paper 
crushed  together  by  my  friend  Mr.  Henry  Woodward, 
from  a  length  of  four  inches,  into  what  you  see  ;  the  High 
Sentis,  exactly  resembles  these,  and  seems  to  consist  of 
four  miles  of  limestone  similarly  crushed  into  one.  Seems, 
I  say,  remember :  I  never  theorize,  I  give  you  the  facts  on- 
ly. The  beds  do  go  up  and  down  like  this :  that  they  have 
been  crushed  together,  it  is  Mr.  Studer  who  says  or  sup- 
poses ;  I  can't  go  so  far ;  nevertheless,  I  admit  that  he 
appears  to  be  right,  and  I  believe  he  is  right ;  only  don't 
be  positive  about  it,  and  don't  debate  ;  but  think  of  it,  and 
examine. 

15.  Suppose,  then,  you  have  a  bed  of  rocks,  four  miles 
long  by  a  mile  thick,  to  be  crushed  laterally  into  the  space 
of  a  mile.  It  may  be  done,  supposing  the  mass  not  to  be 
reducible  in  bulk,  in  two  ways  :  you  may  either  crush  it  up 
into  folds,  as  I  crush  these  pieces  of  cloth ;  or  you  may 
break  it  into  bits,  and  shuffle  them  over  one  another  like 
cards.  Now,  Mr.  Studer,  and  our  geologists  in  general, 
believe  the  first  of  these  operations  to  have  taken  place 
with  the  limestones,  and  the  second  with  the  breccias. 
They  are,  as  I  say,  very  probably  right :  only  just  consider 
what  is  involved  in  the  notion  of  shuffling  up  your  brec- 
cias like  a  pack  of  cards,  and  folding  up  your  limestones 
like  a  length  of  silk  which  a  dexterous  draper's  shopman 
is  persuading  a  young  lady  to  put  ten  times  as  much  of 
into  her  gown  as  is  wanted  for  it !  Think,  1  say,  what  ig 


18  DEUCALION. 

involved  in  the  notion.  That  you  may  shuffle  your  pebble 
beds,  you  must  have  them  strong  and  well  knit.  Then 
what  sort  of  force  musfr  you  have  to  break  arid  to  heave 
them  ?  Do  but  try  the  force  required  to  break  so  much  as 
a  captain's  biscuit  by  a  slow  push, — it  is  the  illustration  I 
gave  long  ago  in  l  Modern  Painters,' — and  then  fancy  the 
results  of  such-  fracturing  power  on  a  bed  of  conglomerate 
two  thousand  feet  thick !  And  here  is  indeed  a  very  charm- 
ing bookbinder's  pattern,  produced  by  my  friend  in  crush- 
ed paper,  and  the  length  of  silk  produces  lovely  results  in 
these  arrangements  a  la  Paul  Veronese.  But  when  you 
have  the  cliffs  of  the  Diablerets,  or  the  Dent  du  Midi  of 
Bex,  to  deal  with  ;  and  have  to  fold  them  up  similarly,  do 
you  mean  to  fold  your  two-thousand-feet-thick  Jura  lime- 
stone in  a  brittle  state,  or  a  ductile  one  \  If  brittle,  won't 
it  smash  ?  If  ductile,  wron't  it  squeeze  \  Yet  your  whole 
mountain  theory  proceeds  on  the  assumption  that  it  has 
neither  broken  nor  been  compressed, — more  than  the  folds 
of  silk  or  coils  of  paper. 

16.  You  most  of  you  have  been  upon  the  lake  of  Thun. 
You  have  been  at  least  carried  up  and  down  it  in  a  steam 
er  ;  you  smoked  over  it  meanwhile,  and  countenanced  the 
Frenchmen  and  Germans  who  were  spitting  into  it.  The 
steamer  carried  you  all  the  length  of  it  in  half  an  hour ; 
you  looked  at  the  Jungfrau  and  Blumlis  Alp,  probably, 
for  five  minutes,  if  it  was  a  fine  day ;  then  took  to 
your  papers,  and  read  the  last  news  of  the  Tichborne  case ; 
then  you  lounged  about, — thought  it  a  nuisance  that  the 


I.    THE    ALPS    AND   JURA. 

steamer  couldn't  take  you  up  in  twenty  minutes,  instead 
of  half  an  hour ;  then  you  got  into  a  row  about  your 
luggage  at  Neuhaus;  and  all  that  you  recollect  after- 
wards is  that  lunch  where  you  met  the  so-and-sos  at 
Interlaken. 

17.  Well,  we  used  to  do  it  differently  in  old  times.    Look 
here ; — this  *  is  the  quay  at  Neuhaus,  with  its  then  travel- 
ling arrangements.     A  flat-bottomed  boat,  little  better  than 
a  punt ; — a  fat  Swiss  girl  with  her  schatz,  or  her  father, 
to  row  it ;  oars  made  of  a  board  tied  to  a  pole :  and  so  one 
paddled  along  over  the  clear  water,  in  and  out  among  the 
bays  and  villages,  for  half  a  day  of  pleasant  life.     And 
one  knew  something  about  the  lake,  ever  after,  if  one  had 
a  head  with  eyes  in  it. 

It  is  just  possible,  however,  that  some  of  you  also  who 
have  been  learning  to  see  the  Alps  in  your  new  fashion, 
may  remember  that  the  north  side  of  the  lake  of  Thun 
consists,  first,  next  Thun,  of  a  series  of  low  green  hills, 
with  brown  cliffs  here  and  there  among  the  pines ;  and 
that  above  them,  just  after  passing  Oberhofen,  rears  up 
suddenly  a  great  precipice,  with  its  flank  to  the  lake,  and 
the  winding  wall  of  it  prolonged  upwards,  far  to  the  north) 
losing  itself,  if  the  day  is  fine,  in  faint  tawny  crests  of  rock 
among  the  distant  blue ;  and  if  stormy,  in  wreaths  of  more 
than  commonly  torn  and  fantastic  cloud. 

18.  To  form  the  top  of  that  peak  on  the  north  side  of 

*  Turner's  first  study  of  the  Lake  of  Thun,  1803. 


20  DEUCALION. 

the  lake  of  Thun,  you  have  to  imagine  forces  which  have 
taken — say,  the  whole  of  the  North  Foreland,  with  Dover 
castle  on  it,  and  have  folded  it  upside-down  on  the  top  of 
the  parade  at  Margate, — then  swept  up  Whitstable  oyster- 
beds,  and  put  them  on  the  bottom  of  Dover  cliffs  turned 
topsy-turvy, — and  then  wrung  the  whole  round  like  a  wet 
towel,  till  it  is  as  close  and  hard  as  it  will  knit ; — such  is 
the  beginning  of  the  operations  which  have  produced  the 
lateral  masses  of  the  higher  Alps. 

19.  Next  to  these,  you  have  the  great  sculptural  force, 
which  gave  them,  approximately,  their  present  forms, — 
which  let  out  all  the  lake  waters  above  a  certain  level, — 
which  cut  the  gorge  of  the  Devil's  Bridge — of  the  Via 
Mala — of  Gondo — of  the  valley  of  Cluse  ; — which  let  out 
the  Rhone  at  St.  Maurice,  the  Ticino  at  Faido,  and  shaped 
all  the  vast  ravines  which  make  the  flanks  of  the  great 
mountains  awful. 

20.  Then,  finally,  you  have  the  rain,  torrent,  and  glacier 
of  human  days. 

Of  whose  action,  briefly,  this  is  the  sum. 

Over  all  the  high  surfaces,  disintegration — melting  away 
— diffusion — loss  of  height  and  terror. 

In  the  ravines, — whether  occupied  by  torrent  or  gla- 
cier,— gradual  incumbrance  by  materials  falling  from 
above ;  choking  up  of  their  beds  by  silt — by  moraine— 
by  continual  advances  of  washed  slopes  on  their  flanks : 
here  and  there,  only,  exceptional  conditions  occur  in 
which  a  river  is  still  continuing  feebly  the  ancient  cleav* 


I.    THE    ALPS    AND   JUBA.  21 

ing  action,  and  cutting  its  ravine  deeper,  or  cutting  it 
back. 

Fix  this  idea  thoroughly  in  your  minds.  Since  the  val- 
ley of  Lauterbrunnen  existed  for  human  eyes, — or  its  pas- 
tures for  the  food  of  flocks, — it  has  not  been  cut  deeper, 
but  partially  filled  up  by  its  torrents.  The  town  of  In- 
terlachen  stands  where  there  was  once  lake, — and  the 
long  slopes  of  grassy  sward  on  the  north  of  it,  stand  where 
once  was  precipice.  Slowly, — almost  with  infinite  slow- 
ness,— the  declining  and  encumbering  action  takes  place  ; 
but  incessantly,  and, — as  far  as  our  experience  reaches, — 
irredeemably. 

21.  Now  1  have  touched  in  this  lecture  briefly  on  the 
theories  respecting  the  elevation  of  the  Alps,  because  I 
want  to  show  you  how  uncertain  and  unsatisfactory  they 
still  remain.  For  our  own  work,  we  must  waste  no  time 
on  them ;  we  must  begin  where  all  theory  ceases ;  and 
where  observation  becomes  possible, — that  is  to  say,  with 
the  forms  which  the  Alps  have  actually  retained  while 
men  have  dwelt  among  them,  and  on  which  we  can  trace 
the  progress,  or  the  power,  of  existing  conditions  of  minor 
change.  Such  change  has  lately  affected,  and  with  grievous 
deterioration,  the  outline  of  the  highest  mountain  of  Eu- 
rope, with  that  of  its  beautiful  supporting  buttresses, — the 
aiguille  de  Bionassay.  I  do  not  care,  and  1  want  you  not 
to  care, — how  crest  or  aiguille  was  lifted,  or  where  its 
materials  came  from,  or  how  much  bigger  it  was  once.  I 
do  care  that  you  should  know,  and  I  will  endeavour  in 


DEUCALION. 


these  following  pages  securely  to  show  you,  in  what 
strength  and  beauty  of  form  it  has  actually  stood  since 
man  was  man,  and  whafr  subtle  modifications  of  aspect,  or 
majesties  of  contour,  it  still  suffers  from  the  rains  that 
beat  upon  it,  or  owes  to  the  snows  that  rest. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE   THREE 

(Part  of  a  Lecture  given  at  the  London  Institution  in 
March,  1875,  with  added  pieces  from  Lectures  in 
Oxford.) 

1.  WE  are  now,  so  many  of  us,  some  restlessly  and  some 
wisely,  in  the  habit  of  spending  our  evenings  abroad,  that 
I  do  not  know  if  any  book  exists  to  occupy  the  place  of 
one  classical  in  my  early  days,  called  *'  Evenings  at  Home.' 
It  contained,  among  many  well-written  lessons,  one,  under 
the  title  of  t  Eyes  and  No  Eyes,'  which  some  of  my  older 
hearers  may  remember,  and  which  I  should  myself  be 
sorry  to  forget.  For  if  such  a  book  were  to  be  written  in 
these  days,  I  suppose  the  title  and  the  moral  of  the  story 
would  both  be  changed  ;  and,  instead  of  '  Eyes  and  No 
Eyes,'  the  tale  would  be  called  '  Microscopes  and  No 
Microscopes.'  For  I  observe  that  the  prevailing  habit  of 
learned  men  is  now  to  take  interest  only  in  objects  which 
cannot  be  seen  without  the  aid  of  instruments  ;  and  I  be- 
lieve many  of  my  learned  friends,  if  they  were  permitted 
to  make  themselves,  to  their  own  liking,  instead  of  suffer- 
ing the  slow  process  of  selective  development,  would  give 


24  DEUCALION. 

themselves  heads  like  wasps',  with  three  microscopic  eyes 
in  the  middle  of  their  foreheads,  and  two  ears  at  the  ends 
of  their  antennae. 

2.  It  is  the  fashion,  in  modern  days,  to  say  that  Pope 
was  no  poet.     Probably  our  schoolboys  also,  think  Horace 
none.     They  have  each,  nevertheless,  built  for  themselves 
a  monument  of  enduring  wisdom  ;  and  all  the  temptations 
and  errors  of  our  own  day,  in  the  narrow  sphere  of  lentic- 
ular curiosity,  were  anticipated  by  Pope,  and  rebuked,  in 
one  couplet : 

"  Why  has  not  man  a  microscopic  eye  ? 
For  this  plain  reason, — Man  is  not  a  fly." 

While  the  nobler  following  lines, 

"  Say,  what  avail,  were  finer  optics  given 
To  inspect  a  mite,  not  comprehend  the  heaven  ?  " 

only  fall  short  of  the  truth  of  our  present  dulness,  in  that 
we  inspect  heaven  itself,  without  understanding  it. 

3.  In  old  times,  then,  it  was  not  thought  necessary  for 
human  creatures  to  know  either  the  infinitely  little,  or  the 
infinitely  distant ;  nor  either  to  see,  or  feel,  by  artificial 
help.     Old  English  people   used  to   say  they  perceived 
things  with  their  five — or  it   may  be,  in  a  hurry,  they 
would  say,  their  seven,  senses  /  and  that  word  '  sense  *  be- 
came, and  for  ever  must  remain,  classical  English,  derived 
from  classical  Latin,   in  both  -languages  signifying,  not 
only  the  bodily  sense,  but  the  moral  cue.    If  a  man  heard, 


II.    THE   THREE    MRAS.  25" 

saw,  and  tasted  rightly, 'we  used  to  say  he  had  his  bodily 
senses  perfect.  If  he  judged,  wished,  and  felt  rightly,  we 
used  to  say  he  had  his  moral  senses  perfect,  or  was  a  man 
*  in  his  senses.'  And  we  were  then  able  to  speak  precise 
truth  respecting  both  matter  and  morality ;  and  if  we 
heard  any  one  saying  clearly  absurd  things, — as,  for 
instance,  that  human  creatures  were  automata, — we  used 
to  say  they  were  out  of  their  '  senses,'  and  we^e  talking 
non-<  sense.' 

Whereas,  in  modern  days,  by  substituting  analysis  for 
sense  in  morals,  and  chemistry  for  sense  in  matter,  we 
have  literally  blinded  ourselves  to  the  essential  qualities 
of  both  matter  and  morals  ;  and  are  entirely  incapable  of 
understanding  what  is  meant  by  the  description  given 
us,  in  a  book  we  once  honoured,  of  men  who  "  by  reason 
of  use,  have  their  senses  exercised  to  discern  both  good 
and  evil." 

4.  And  still,  with  increasingly  evil  results  to  all  of  us, 
the  separation  is  every  day  widening  between  the  man  of 
science  and  the  artist — in  that,  whether  painter,  sculptor, 
or  musician,  the  latter  is  pre-eminently  a  person  who  sees 
with  his  Eyes,  hears  with  his  Ears,  and  labours  with  his 
Body,  as  God  constructed  them  ;  and  who,  in  using  instru- 
ments, limits  himself  to  tho§e  which  convey  or  communi- 
cate his  human  power,  while  he  rejects  all  that  increase  it. 
Titian  would  refuse  to  quicken  his  touch  by  electricity ; 
and  Michael  Angelo  to  substitute  a  steam  hammer  for  his 

mallet.     Such  men  not  only  do  not  desire,  they  impera 
2 


26  DEfJCALION. 

tively  and  scornfully  refuse,  either  the  force,  or  the  in- 
formation, which  are  beyond  the  scope  of  the  flesh  and 
the  senses  of  humanity.  And  it  is  at  once  the  wisdom, 
the  honour,  and  the  peace,  of  the  Masters  both  of  painting 
and  literature,  that  they  rejoice  in  the  strength,  and  rest 
in  the  knowledge,  which  are  granted  to  active  and  disci- 
plined life  ;  and  are  more  and  more  sure,  every  day,  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  Maker  in  setting  such  measure  to  their  be- 
ing ;  and  more  and  more  satisfied,  in  their  sight  and  their 
audit  of  Nature,  that  "  the  hearing  ear,  and  the  seeing 
eye, — the  Lord  hath  made  even  both  of  them." 

5.  This  evening,  therefore,  I  venture  to  address  you 
speaking  limitedly  as  an  artist;  but,  therefore,  I  think, 
with  a  definite  advantage  in  having  been  trained  to  the 
use  of  my  eyes  and  senses,  as  my  chief  means  of  observa- 
tion :  and  I  shall  try  to  show  you  things  which  with  your 
own  eyes  you  may  any  day  see,  and  with  your  own  com- 
mon sense,  if  it  please  you  to  trust  it,  account  for. 

Things  which  you  may  see,  I  repeat ;  not  which  you 
might  perhaps  have  seen,  if  you  had  been  born  when  you 
were  not  born ;  nor  which  you  might  perhaps  in  future 
see,  if  you  were  alive  when  you  will  be  dead.  But 
what,  in  the  span  of  earth,  and  space  of  time,  allotted  to 
you,  may  be  seen  with  your  .human  eyes,  if  you  learn  to 
use  them. 

And  this  limitation  has,  with  respect  to  our  present 
subject,  a  particular  significance,  which  I  must  explain  to 
you  before  entering  on  the  main  matter  of  it. 


H.    THE   THEEE   MRA.8.  27  >' 

6.  No  one  more  honours  the  past  lahour — no  one  more 
regrets  the  present  rest — of  the  late  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
than  his  scholar,  who  speaks  to  you.     But  his  great  the- 
orem of  the  constancy  and  power  of  existing  phenomena 
was  only  in  measure  proved, — in  a  larger  measure  disput- 
able ;  and  in  the  broadest  bearings  of  it,  entirely  false. 
Pardon  me  if  I  spend  no  time  in  qualifications,  refer- 
ences, or   apologies,  but   state  clearly  to  you  what   Sir 
Charles  Ly ell's  wrork  itself  enables  us  now  to  perceive  of 
the  truth.     There  are,  broadly,  three  great  demonstrable 
periods  of  the  Earth's  history.     That  in  which  it  was 
crystallized ;  that  in  which  it  was  sculptured ;  and  that 
in  which  it   is   now  being  unsculptured,   or   deformed. 
These  three  periods  interlace  with  each  other,  and  gra- 
date into  each  other — as  the  periods  of  human  life  do. 
Something  dies  in  the  child  on  the  day  that  it  is  born, — 
something  is  born  in  the  man  on  the  day  that  he  dies : 
nevertheless,   his    life    is    broadly   divided    into    youth, 
strength,  and  decrepitude.     In  such  clear  sense,  the  Earth 
has  its  three  ages :  of  their  length  we  know  as  yet  noth- 
ing, except  that  it  has  been  greater  than  any  man  had 
imagined. 

7.  (THE  FIRST  PERIOD.)— But  there  was  a  period, 
or  a  succession  of  periods,  during  which  the  rocks  which 
are  now  hard  were  soft;  and  in  which,  out  of  entirely 
different  positions,  and  under  entirely  different  conditions 
from   any  now  existing  or   describable,   the  masses,  of 
which  the  mountains  vou  now  see  are  made,  were  lifted, 


28  DEUCALION. 

and  hardened,  in  the  positions  they  now  occupy,  though 
in  what  forms  we  can  now  no  more  guess  than  we  can 
the  original  outline  of»the  block  from  the  existing  statue. 

8.  (THE   SECOND   PERIOD.)— Then,  out  of  those 
raised  masses,  more  or  less  in  lines  compliant  with  their 
crystalline   structure,   the   mountains  we   now   see  were 
hewn,  or  worn,  during  the  second  period,  by  forces  for 
the  most  part  differing  both  in  mode  and  violence  from 
any  now  in  operation,  but   the  result  of  which  was  to 
bring  the  surface  of  the  earth  into  a  form  approximately 
that  which  it  has  possessed  as  far  as  the  records  of  human 
history  extend.     The  Ararat  of  Moses's  time,  the  Olympus 
and  Ida  of  Homer's,  are  practically  the  same  mountains 
now,  that  they  were  then. 

9.  (THE  THIRD  PERIOD.)— Not,  however,  without 
some   calculable,  though    superficial,   change,   and    that 
change,  one  of  steady  degradation.     For  in  the  third,  or 
historical   period,  the  valleys   excavated    in   the   second 
period  are  being  filled  up,  and  the  mountains,  hewn  in 
the  second  period,  worn  or  ruined  down.     In  the  second 
sera  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  was  being  cut  deeper  ever} 
day ;  now  it  is  every  day  being  filled  up  with  gravel.     In 
the  second  sera,  the  scars  of  Derbyshire  and  Yorkshire 
were  cut  white  and  steep ;  now  they  are  being  darkened 
by  vegetation,  and   crumbled  by  frost.     You   cannot,  I 
repeat,  separate  the  periods  with  precision ;  but,  in  their 
characters,  they  are  as  distinct  as  youth  from  age. 

10.  The  features  of  mountain  form,  to  which  during  my 


II.    THE   THREE   JEBAS. 


29' 


own  life  I  have  exclusively  directed  my  study,  and  which 
I  endeavour  to  bring  before  the  notice  of  my  pupils  in 
Oxford,  are  exclusively  those  produced  by  existing  forces, 
on  mountains  whose  form  and  substance  have  not  been 
materially  changed  during  the  historical  period. 

For  familiar  example,  take  the  rocks  of  Edinburgh  Cas- 
tle, and  Salisbury  Craig.  Of  course  we  know  that  they 
are  both  basaltic,  and  must  once  have  been  hot.  But  I  do 
not  myself  care  in  the  least  what  happened  to  them  till 
they  were  cold.*  They  have  both  been  cold  at  least  long- 


*  More  carious  persons,  who  are  interested  in  their  earlier  condition, 
will  find  a  valuable  paper  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Judd,  in  the  quarterly  '  Journal 
of  the  Geological  Society,'  May,  1875  ;  very  successfully,  it  seems  to  me, 
demolishing  all  former  theories  on  the  subject,  which  the  author  thus 
sums,  at  p.  135. 

' '  The  series  of  events  which  we  are  thus  required  to  believe  took 
place  in  this  district  is  therefore  as  follows  :  — 

A.  At  the  point  where  the  Arthur's  Seat  group  of  hills  now  rises,  a 
series  of  volcanic   eruptions   occurred  during  the  Lower  Calciferous 
Sandstone  period,  commencing  with  the  emission  of  basaltic  lavas,  and 
ending  with  that  of  porphyrites. 

B.  An  interval  of  such  enormous  duration  supervened  as  to  admit 
of— 

a.  The  deposition  of  at  least  3,000  feet  of  Carboniferous  strata. 

b.  The  bending  of  all  the  rocks  of  the  district  into  a  series  of 

great  anticlinal  and  synclinal  folds. 

c.  The  removal  of  every  vestige  of  the  3, 000  feet  of  strata  by  de- 

nudation. 

C.  The  outburst,  after  this  vast  interval,  of  a  second  series  of  volcanic 
eruptions  upon  the  identical  site  of  the  former  ones,  presenting  in  its 


30  DEUCALION. 

er  than  young  Harry  Percy's  spur ;  and,  since  they  were 
last  brought  out  of  the  oven,  in  the  shape  which,  approxi- 
mately, they  still  retafci,  with  a  hollow  beneath  one  of 
them,  which,  for  aught  I  know,  or  care,  may  have  been  cut 
by  a  glacier  out  of  white-hot  lava,  but  assuredly  at  last  got 
itself  filled  with  pure,  sweet,  cold  water,  and  called,  in  Low- 
land Scotch,  the  '  Nor '  Loch ;' — since  the  time,  I  say,  when 
the  basalt,  above,  became  hard,  and  the  lake  beneath,  drink- 
able, I  am  desirous  to  examine  with  you  what  effect  the 
winter's  frost  and  summer's  rain  have  had  on  the  crags  and 
their  hollows ;  how  far  the  (  Kittle  nine  steps '  under  the 
castle-walls,  or  the  firm  slope  and  cresting  precipice  above 
the  dark  ghost  of  Holyrood,  are  enduring  or  departing 
forms;  and  how  long,  unless  the  young  engineers  of  New 
Edinburgh  blast  the  incumbrance  away,  the  departing 
mists  of  dawn  may  each  day  reveal  the  form,  unchanged, 
of  the  Rock  which  was  the  strength  of  their  Fathers. 

11.  Unchanged,  or  so  softly  modified  that  eye  can  scarce- 
ly trace,  or  memory  measure,  the  work  of  time.  Have 
you  ever  practically  endeavoured  to  estimate  the  alterations 
of  form  in  any  hard  rocks  known  to  you,  during  the 

succession,  of  events  'precisely  the  same  sequence,  and  resulting  in  the 
production  of  rocks  of  totally  undistinguishable  character. 

Are  we  not  entitled  to  regard  the  demand  for  the  admission  of  such  a 
series  of  extraordinary  accidents  as  evidence  of  the  antecedent  improb- 
ability of  the  theory  ?  And  when  we  find  that  all  attempts  to  suggest  a 
period  for  the  supposed  second  series  of  outbursts  have  successively  fail- 
ed, do  not  the  difficulties  of  the  hypothesis  appear  to  be  overwhelming  ?  " 


II.  THE    THREE 


31- 


course  of  jour  own  lives  ?  You  have  all  heard,  a  thousand 
times  over,  the  common  statements  of  the  school  of  Sir 
Charles  Lyell.  You  know  all  about  alluviums  and  gravels ; 
and  what  torrents  do,  and  what  rivers  do,  and  what  ocean 
currents  do ;  and  when  you  see  a  muddy  stream  coming 
down  in  a  flood,  or  even  the  yellow  gutter  more  than  usual- 
ly rampant  by  the  roadside  in  a  thunder  shower,  you  think, 
of  course,  that  all  the  forms  of  the  Alps  are  to  be  account- 
ed for  by  aqueous  erosion,  and  that  it's  a  wonder  any 
Alps  are  still  left.  Well — any  of  you  who  have  fished 
the  pools  of  Scottish  or  a  Welsh  stream, — have  you  ever 
thought  of  asking  an  old  keeper  how  much  deeper  they 
had  got  to  be,  while  his  hairs  were  silvering  ?  Do  you 
suppose  he  wouldn't  laugh  in  your  face  ? 

There  are  some  sitting  here,  I  think,  who  must  have 

O  /  / 

themselves  fished,  for  more  than  one  summer,  years  ago, 
in  Dove  or  Derwent, — in  Tweed  or  Teviot.  Can  any  of 
you  tell  me  a  single  pool,  even  in  the  limestone  or  sand- 
stone, where  you  could  spear  a  salmon  then,  and  can't 
reach  one  now — (providing  always  the  wretches  of  manu- 
facturers have  left  you  one  to  be  speared,  or  water  that  you 
can  see  through)  ?  Do  you  know  so  much  as  a  single  riv- 
ulet of  clear  water  which  has  cut  away  a  visible  half-inch 
of  Highland  rock,  to  your  own  knowledge,  in  your  own 
day  ?  You  have  seen  wrhole  banks,  whole  fields  washed 
away ;  and  the  rocks  exposed  beneath  \  Yes,  of  course 
you  have ;  and  so  have  I.  The  rains  wash  the  loose  earth 
about  everywhere,  in  any  masses  that  they  chance  to  catch 


32  DEUCALION. 

— loose  earth,  or  loose  rock.  But  yonder  little  rifted  well 
in  the  native  whinstone  by  the  sheepfold, — did  the  gray 
shepherd  not  put  his  Iij5fe  to  the  same  ledge  of  it,  to  drink 
— when  he  and  you  were  boys  together  ? 

12.  '  But  Niagara,  and  the  Delta  of  the  Ganges — and 
— all  the  rest  of  it  ? '     Well,  of  course  a  monstrous  mass  of 
continental  drainage,  like  Niagara,  will  wash  down  a  piece 
of  crag  once  in  fifty  years,  (but  only  that,  if  it's  rotten 
below  ; )  and  tropical  rains  will  eat  the  end  off  a  bank  of 
slime  and  alligators, — and  spread  it  out  lower  down.     But 
does  any  Scotchman  know  a  change  in  the  Fall  of  Fyers  ? 
— any  Yorkshireman  in  the  Force  of  Tees  ? 

Except  of  choking  up,  it  may  be — not  of  cutting  down. 
It  is  true,  at  the  side  of  every  stream  you  see  the  places  in 
the  rocks  hollowed  by  the  eddies.  I  suppose  the  eddies 
go  on  at  their  own  rate.  But  I  simply  ask,  Has  any  human 
being  ever  known  a  stream,  in  hard  rock,  cut  its  bed  an 
inch  deeper  down  at  a  given  spot  ? 

13.  I  can  look  back,  myself,  now  pretty  nearly,  I  air 
sorry  to  say,  half  a  century,  and  recognize  no  change  what- 
ever  in  any  of  my  old    dabbling-places ;    but  that  some 
stones  are  mossier,  and  the  streams  usually  dirtier, — the 
Derwent  above  Keswick,  for  example. 

t  But  denudation  does  go  on,  somehow :  one  sees  the 
whole  glen  is  shaped  by  it  2 '  Yes,  but  not  by  the  stream. 
The  stream  only  sweeps  down  the  loose  stones ;  frost  and 
chemical  change  are  the  powers  that  loosen  them.  I  have 
indeed  not  known  one  of  my  dabbling-places  changed  in 


II.    THE   THREE   JERAS.  33, 

fifty  years.  But  I  have  known  the  eboulement  under  the 
Rochers  des  Fyz,  which  filled  the  Lao  de  Chede ;  I  passed 
through  the  valley  of  Cluse  a  night  after  some  two  or  three 
thousand  tons  of  limestone  came  off  the  cliffs  of  Maglans — • 
burying  the  road  and  field  beside  it.  I  have  seen  half  a 
village  buried  by  a  landslip,  and  its  people  killed,  under 
Monte  St.  Angelo,  above  Amalfi.  I  have  seen  the  lower 
lake  of  Llanberis  destroyed,  merely  by  artificial  slate  quar- 
ries ;  and  the  Waterhead  of  Coniston  seriously  diminished 
in  purity  and  healthy  flow  of  current  by  the  debris  of  its 
copper  mines.  These  are  all  cases,  you  will  observe,  of 
degradation;  diminishing  majesty  in  the  mountain,  and 
diminishing  depth  in  the  valley,  or  pools  of  its  waters.  I 
cannot  name  a  single  spot  in  which,  during  my  lifetime 
spent  among  the  mountains,  I  have  seen  a  peak  made 
grander,  a  watercourse  cut  deeper,  or  a  mountain  pool 
made  larger  and  purer. 

14.  I  am  almost  surprised,  myself,  as  I  write  these 
words,  at  the  strength  which,  on  reflection,  I  am  able  to 
give  to  my  assertion.  For,  even  till  I  began  to  write  these 
very  pages,  and  was  forced  to  collect  my  thoughts,  I  re- 
mained under  the  easily  adopted  impression,  that,  at  least 
among  soft  earthy  eminences,  the  rivers  were  still  cutting 
out  their  beds.  And  it  is  not  so  at  all.  There  are  indeed 
banks  here  and  there  which  they  visibly  remove ;  but 
whatever  they  sweep  down  from  one  side,  they  sweep  up 
on  the  other,  and  extend  a  promontory  of  land  for  every 

shelf  they  undermine :  and  as  for  those  radiating  fibrous 

2* 


34  DEUCALION. 

valleys  in  the  Apennines,  and  such  other  hills,  which  look 
symmetrically  shaped  by  streams, — they  are  not  lines  of 
trench  from  below,  but4ines  of  wash  or  slip  from  above  : 
they  are  the  natural  wear  and  tear  of  the  surface,  directed 
indeed  in  easiest  descent  by  the  bias  of  the  stream,  but 
not  dragged  down  by  its  grasp.  In  every  one  of  those 
ravines  the  water  is  being  choked  up  to  a  higher  level ; 
it  is  riot  gnawing  down  to  a  lower.  So  that,  I  repeat,  ear- 
nestly, their  chasms  being  choked  below,  and  their  preci- 
pices shattered  above,  all  mountain  forms  are  suffering  a 
deliquescent  and  corroding  change, — not  a  sculpturesque 
or  anatomizing  change.  All  character  is  being  gradually 
effaced ;  all  crooked  places  made  straight, — all  rough 
places,  plain ;  and  among  these  various  agencies,  not  of 
erosion,  but  corrosion,  none  are  so  distinct  as  that  of  the 
glacier,  in  filling  up,  not  cutting  deeper,  the  channel  it 
fills ;  and  in  rounding  and  smoothing,  but  never  sculptur- 
ing, the  rocks  over  which  it  passes. 

In  this  fragmentary  collection  of  former  work,  now 
patched  and  darned  into  serviceableness,  I  cannot  finish 
my  chapters  with  the  ornamental  fringes  I  used  to  twine 
for  them  ;  nor  even  say,  by  any  means,  all  I  have  in  my 
mind  on  the  matters  they  treat  of :  in  the  present  case, 
however,  the  reader  will  find  an  elucidatory  postscript 
added  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  chapter,  which  he  had 
perhaps  better  glance  over  before  beginning  the  third. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF   ICE-CKEAM. 

(Continuation  of  Lecture  delivered  at  London  Institution, 
with  added  Illustrations  from  Lectures  at  Oxford.) 

1.  THE  statement  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter, 
doubtless  surprising  and  incredible  to  many  of  my  readers 
must,  before  I  reinforce  it,  be  explained  as  referring  only 
to  glaciers  visible,  at  this  day,  in  temperate  regions.  For 
of  formerly  deep  and  continuous  tropical  ice,  or  of  exist- 
ing Arctic  ice,  and  their  movements,  or  powers,  I  know, 
and  therefore  say,  nothing.*  But  of  the  visible  glaciers 

*  The  following  passage,  quoted  in  the  '  Geological  Magazine'  for  June 
of  this  year,  by  Mr.  Clifton  Ward,  of  Keswick,  from  a  letter  of  Profes- 
sor Sedgwick's,  dated  May  24th,  1842,  is  of  extreme  value  ;  and  Mr. 
Ward's  following  comments  are  most  reasonable  and  just : — 

"  No  one  will,  I  trust,  be  so  bold  as  to  affirm  that  an  uninterrupted 
glacier  could  ever  have  extended  from  Shap  Fells  to  the  coast  of  Holder- 
ness,  and  borne  along  the  blocks  of  granite  through  the  whole  distance, 
without  any  help  from  the  floating  power  of  water.  The  supposition 
involves  difficulties  tenfold  greater  than  are  implied  in  the  phenomenon 
it  pretends  to  account  for.  The  -glaciers  descending  through  the  val- 
leys of  the  higher  Alps  have  an  enormous  transporting  power :  but  there 
is  no  such  power  in  a  great  sheet  of  ice  expanded  over  a  country  with- 
out mountains,  and  at  a  nearly  dead  level." 


36  DEUCALION. 

couched  upon  the  visible  Alps,  two  great  facts  are  very 
clearly  ascertainable,  which,  in  my  lecture  at  the  London 
Institution,  I  asserted  in»their  simplicity,  as  follows  : — 

2.  The  first  great  fact  to  be  recognized  concerning  them 
is  that  they  are  Fluid  bodies.  Sluggishly  fluid,  indeed, 
but  definitely  and  completely  so  ;  and  therefore^  they  *do 
not  scramble  down,  nor  tumble  down,  nor  crawl  down, 
nor  slip  down  ;  but  flow  down.  They  do  not  move  like 
leeches,  nor  like  caterpillars,  nor  like  stones,  but  like, 
what  they  are  made  of,  water. 

The  difficulties  involved  in  the  theories  of  Messrs.  Croll,  Belt,  Good- 
child,  and  others  of  the  same  extreme  school,  certainly  press  upon  me 
— and  I  think  I  may  say  also  upon  others  of  my  colleagues — increasing- 
ly, as  the  country  becomes  more  and  more  familiar  in  its  features.  It 
is  indeed  a  most  startling  thought,  as  one  stands  upon  the  eastern  bor- 
ders of  the  Lake-mountains,  to  fancy  the  ice  from  the  Scotch  hills 
stalking  boldly  across  the  Solway,  marching  steadily  up  the  Eden  Val- 
ley, and  persuading  some  of  the  ice  from  Shap  to  join  it  on  an  excur- 
sion over  Stainmoor,  and  bring  its  boulders  with  it. 

The  outlying  northern  parts  of  the  Lake-district,  and  the  flat  country 
beyond,  have  indeed  been  ravished  in  many  a  raid  by  our  Scotch  neigh  - 
bours,  but  it  is  a  question  whether,  in  glacial  times,  the  Cumbrian 
mountains  and  Pennine  chain  had  not  strength  in  their  protruding  icy 
arms  to  keep  at  a  distance  the  ice  proceeding  from  the  district  of  the 
southern  uplands,  the  mountains  of  which  are  not  superior  in  elevation. 
Let  us  hope  that  the  careful  geological  observations  which  will  doubt- 
less be  made  in  the  forthcoming  scientific  Arctic  Expedition  will  throw 
much  new  light  on  our  past  glacial  period. 

J.  CLIFTON  WAED. 

KESWICK,  April  2Gth,  1875. 


HI.    OF   ICE-CREAM. 


37' 


That  is  the  main  fact  in  their  state,  and  progress,  on 
which  all  their  great  phenomena  depend. 

Fact  first  discovered  and  proved  by  Professor  James 
Forbes,  of  Edinburgh,  in  the  year  1842,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  all  the  glacier  theorists  of  his  time  ; — fact  stren- 
uously denied,  disguised,  or  confusedly  and  partially  ap- 
prehended, by  all  of  the  glacier  theorists  of  subsequent 
times,  down  to  our  own  day  ;  else  there  had  been* no  need 
for  me  to  tell  it  you  again  to-night. 

3.  The  second  fact  of  which  I  have  to  assure  you  is 
partly,  I  believe,  new  to  geologists,  and  therefore  may  be 
of  some  farther  interest  to  you  because  of  its  novelty, 
though  I  do  not  myself  care  a  grain  of  moraine-dust  for 
the  newness  of  things  ;  but  rather  for  their  oldness  ;  and 
wonder  more  willingly  at  what  my  father  and  grandfather 
thought  wonderful,  (as,  for  instance,  that  the  sun  should 
rise,  or  a  seed  grow,)  than  at  any  newly- discovered  marvel. 
Nor  do  I  know,  any  more  than  I  care,  whether  this  that  I 
have  to  tell  you  be  new  or  not ;  but  I  did  not  absolutely 
know  it  myself,  until  lately  ;  for  though  I  had  ventured 
with  some  boldness  to  assert  it  as  a  consequence  of  other 
facts,  I  had  never  been  under  the  bottom  of  a  glacier  to 
look.  But,  last  summer,  I  was  able  to  cross  the  dry  bed 
of  a  glacier,  which  I  had  seen  flowing,  two  hundred  feet 
deep,  over  the  same  spot,  forty  years  ago.  And  there  I 
saw,  what  before  I  had  suspected,  that  modern  glaciers, 
like  modern  rivers,  were  not  cutting  their  beds  deeper, 
but  filling  them  up.  These,  then,  are  the  two  facts  I 


38  DETTOALION. 

wish  to  lay  distinctly  before  you  this  evening,— first  that 
glaciers  are  fluent ;  and,  secondly,  that  they  are  filling  up 
their  beds,  not  cutting  *them  deeper. 

4.  (I.)  Glaciers  are  fluent;  slowly,  like  lava,  but  dis- 
tinctly. 

And  now  I  must  ask  you  not  to  disturb  yourselves,  as  I 
speak,  with  bye-thoughts  about c  the  theory  of  regelation.' 
It  is  very  interesting  to  know  that  if  you  put  two  pieces 
of  ice  together,  they  will  stick  together  ;  let  good  Professor 
Faraday  have  all  the  credit  of  showing  us  that ;  and  the 
human  race  in  general,  the  discredit  of  not  having  known 
BO  much  as  that,  about  the  substance  they  have  skated  upon, 
dropped  through,  and  eat  any  quantity  of  tons  of — these 
two  or  three  thousand  years. 

It  was  left,  nevertheless,  for  Mr.  Faraday  to  show  them 
that  two  pieces  of  ice  will  stick  together  when  they  touch 
• — as  two  pieces  of  hot  glass  will.  But  the  capacity  of  ice 
for  sticking  together  no  more  accounts  for  the  making  of 
a  glacier,  than  the  capacity  of  glass  for  sticking  together 
accounts  for  the  making  of  a  bottle.  The  mysteries  of 
crystalline  vitrification,  indeed,  present  endless  entertain- 
ment to  the  scientific  inquirer ;  but  by  no  theory  of  vitrifi- 
cation can  he  explain  to  us  how  the  bottle  was  made  narrow 
at  the  neck,  or  dishonestly  vacant  at  the  bottom.  Those 
conditions  of  it  are  to  be  explained  only  by  the  study  of 
the  centrifugal  and  moral  powers  to  which  it  has  been 
submitted. 

5,  In  like  manner,  I  do  not  doubt  but  that  wonderful 


in.    OF   ICE-CREAM.  39' 

phenomena  of  congelation,  regelation,  degelation,  and  ge- 
lation pure  without  preposition,  take  place  whenever  a 
schoolboy  makes  a  snowball ;  and  that  miraculously  rapid 
changes  in  the  structure  and  temperature  of  the  particles 
accompany  the  experiment  of  producing  a  star  with  it  on 
an  old  gentleman's  back.  But  the  principal  conditions  of 
either  operation  are  still  entirely  dynamic.  To  make  your 
snowball  hard,  you  must  squeeze  it  hard ;  and  its  expan- 
sion on  the  recipient  surface  is  owing  to  a  lateral  diversion 
of  the  impelling  forces,  and  not  to  its  regelatic  proper- 
ties. 

6.  Our  first  business,  then,  in  studying  a  glacier,  is  to 
consider  the  mode  of  its  original  deposition,  and  the  large 
forces  of  pressure  and  fusion  brought  to  bear  on  it,  with 
their  necessary  consequences  on  such  a  substance  as  we 
practically  know  snow  to  be, — a  powder,  ductile  by  wind, 
compressible  by  weight ;  diminishing  by  thaw,  and  hard- 
ening by  time  and  frost ;  a  thing  which  sticks  to  rough 
ground,  and  slips  on  smooth  ;  which  clings  to  the  branch 
of  a  tree,  and  slides  on  a  slated  roof. 

7.  Let  us  suppose,  then,  to  begin  with,  a  volcanic  cone 
in  which  the  crater  has  been  filled,  and  the  temperature 
cooled,  and  which  is  now  exposed  to  its  first  season  of 
glacial  agencies.     Then  let  Plate  1,  Fig.  1,  represent  this 
mountain,  with  part  of  the  plans  at  its  foot  under  an 
equally  distributed  depth  of  a  first  winter's  snow,  and 
place  the  level  of  perpetual  snow  at  any  point  you  like — 
for  simplicity's    sake,   I  put  it  halfway   up   the   cone, 


4:0  DEUCALION. 

Below  this  snow-line,  all  snow  disappears  in  summer; 
but  above  it,  the  higher  we  ascend,  the  more  of  course 
we  find  remaining.  It  is  quite  wonderful  how  few  feet 
in  elevation  make  observable  difference  in  the  quantity  of 
snow  that  will  lie.  This  last  winter,  in  crossing  the 
moors  of  the  peak  of  Derbyshire,  I  found,  on  the  higher 
masses  of  them,  that  ascents  certainly  not  greater  than 
that  at  Harrow  from  the  bottom  of  the  hill  to  the  school- 
house,  made  all  the  difference  between  easy  and  difficult 
travelling,  by  the  change  in  depth  of  snow. 

8.  At  the  close  of  the  summer,  we  have  then  the  rem- 
nant represented  in  Fig.  2,  on  which  the  snows  of  the 
ensuing  winter  take  the  form  in  Fig.  3 ;  and  from  this 
greater  heap  we  shall  have  remaining  a  greater  remnant, 
which,  supposing  110  wind  or  other  disturbing  force  modi- 
fied its  form,  would  appear  as  at  Fig.  4 ;  and,  under  such 
necessary  modification,  together  with  its  own  deliques- 
cence, would  actually  take  some  such  figure  as  that  shown 
at  Fig.  5. 

Now,  what  is  there  to  hinder  the  continuance  of  accu- 
mulation ?  If  we  cover  this  heap  with  another  layer  of 
winter's  snow  (Fig.  6),  we  see  at  once  that  the  ultimate 
condition  would  be,  unless  somehow  prevented,  one  of 
enormous  mass,  superincumbent  on  the  peak — like  a  co- 
lossal haystack,  and  extending  far  down  its  sides  below  the 
level  of  the  snow-line. 

You  are,  however,  doubtless  well  aware  that  no  such  ac- 
cumulation as  this  ever  does  take  place  on  a  mountain-top. 


III.    OF   ICE-CREAM. 


41- 


9.  So  far  from  it,  the  eternal  snows  do  not  so  much 
as  fill  the  basins  between  mountain-tops;  but,  even  in 
these  hollows,  form  depressed  sheets  at  the  bottom  of 
them.     The  difference  between  the  actual  aspect  of  the 
Alps,  and  that  which  they  would  present  if  no  arrest  of 
the  increasing  accumulation  on  them  took  place,  may  be 
shown  before  you  with  the  greatest  ease ;  and  in  doing  so 
I  have,  in  all  humility,  to  correct  a  grave  error  of  my 
own,  which  strangely  enough,  has  remained  undetected, 
or  at  least  unaccused,  in  spite  of  all  the  animosity  pro- 
voked by  my  earlier  writings.  i 

10.  When  I  wrote  the  first  volume  of  {  Modern  Paint- 
ers,' scarcely  any  single  fact  was  rightly  known  by  any- 
body, about  either  the  snow  or  ice  of  the  Alps.     Chiefly 
the  snows  had  been  neglected :  very  few  eyes  had  ever  seen 
the  higher  snows  near ;  no  foot  had  trodden  the  greater 
number  of  Alpine  summits ;  and  I  had  to  glean  what  I 
needed  for  my  pictorial  purposes  as  best  I  could, — and  my 
best  in  this  case  was  a  blunder.     The  thing  that  struck  me 
most,  when  I  saw  the  Alps  myself,  was  the  enormous  ac- 
cumulation of  snow  on  them ;  and  the  way  it  clung  to 
their  steep  sides.     Well,  I  said  to  myself,  ( of  course  it 
must  be  as  thick  as  it  can  stand ;  because,  as  there  is  an 
excess  which  doesn't  melt,  it  would  go  on  building  itself 
up  like  the  Tower  of  Babel,  unless  it  tumbled  off.     There 
must  be  always,  at  the  end  of  winter,  as  much  snow  on 
every  high  summit  as  it  can  carry.' 

There  must,  I  said.     That  is  the  mathematical  method 


4:2  DEUCALION. 

of  science  as  opposed  to  the  artistic.  Thinking  of  a  thing, 
and  demonstrating, — instead  of  looking  at  it.  Yery  fine, 
and  very  sure,  if  you  happen  to  have  before  you  all  the 
elements  of  thought ;  but  always  very  dangerously  inferior 
to  the  unpretending  method  of  sight — for  people  who  have 
eyes,  and  can  use  them.  If  I  had  only  looked  at  the  snow 
carefully,  I  should  have  seen  that  it  wasn't  anywhere  as 
thick  as  it  could  stand  or  lie — or,  at  least,  as  a  hard  sub- 
stance, though  deposited  in  powder,  could  stand.  And 
then  I  should  have  asked  myself,  with  legitimate  rational- 
ism, why  it  didn't ;  and  if  I  had  but  asked Well,  it's 

no  matter  what  perhaps  might  have  happened  if  I  had.  I 
never  did. 

11.  Let  me  now  show  you,  practically,  how  great  the 
error  was.     Here  is  a  little  model  of  the  upper  summits  of 
the  Bernese  range.     I  shake  over  them  as  much  flour  as 
they  will  carry;  now  I  brush  it  out  of  the  valleys,  to  repre- 
sent the  melting.     Then  you  see  what  is  left  stands  in 
these   domes   and   ridges,   representing   a  mass  of  snow 
about  six  miles   deep.     That  is  what    the    range  would 
be  like,  however,  if  the  snow  stood  up  as  the  flour   does  ; 
and  snow  is   at  least,   you   will  admit,  as   adhesive   as- 
flour. 

12.  But,  you  will  say,  the  scale  is  so  different,  you  can't 
reason  from  the  thing  on  that  scale.     A  most  true  objec 
tion.     You  cannot ;  and  therefore  I  beg  you,  in  like  man- 
ner, not  to  suppose  that  Professor  Tyndall's  experiments 
on  ;£  a  straight  prism  of  ice,  four  inches  long,  an  inch  wide, 


III.   OF  ICE-CREAM.  43  " 

and  a  little  more  than  an  inch  in  depth,"  *  are  conclusive 
as  to  the  modes  of  glacier  motion. 

In  what  respect  then,  we  have  to  ask,  would  the  differ- 
ence in  scale  modify  the  result  of  the  experiment  made 
here  on  the  table,  supposing  this  model  was  the  Jungfrau 
itself,  and  the  flour  supplied  by  a  Cyclopean  miller  and 
his  men  \ 

13.  In  the  first  place,  the  lower  beds  of  a  mass  six  miles 
deep  would  be  much  consolidated  by  pressure.  But  would 
they  be  only  consolidated?  Would  they  be  in  nowise 
squeezed  out  at  the  sides  ? 

The  answer  depends  of  course  on  the  nature  of  flour, 
and  on  its  conditions  of  dryness.  And  you  must  feel  in  a 
moment  that,  to  know  what  an  Alpine  range  would  look 
like,  heaped  with  any  substance  whatever,  as  high  as  the 
substance  would  stand — you  must  lirst  ascertain  how  high 
the  given  substance  will  stand — on  level  ground.  You 
might  perhaps  heap  your  Alp  high  with  wheat, — not  so 
high  with  sand, — nothing  like  so  high  with  dough ;  and  a 
very  thin  coating  indeed  would  be  the  utmost  possible  re- 
sult of  any  quantity  whatever  of  showers  of  manna,  if  it 
had  the  consistence,  as  well  as  the  taste,  of  wafers  made 
with  honey. 

14:.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  our  first  of  inquiries  bear- 
ing on  the  matter  before  us,  must  be,  How  high  will  snow 
stand  on  level  ground,  in  a  block  or  column  ?  Suppose 

*  '  Glaciers  of  the  Alps,'  p.  348. 


44  DEUCALION. 

you  were  to  plank  in  a  square  space,  securely — twenty 
feet  high — thirty — fifty;  and  to  fill  it  with  dry  snow. 
How  high  could  you  g^t  your  pillar  to  stand,  when  you 
took  away  the  wooden  walls  ?  and  when  you  reached  your 
limit,  or  approached  it,  what  would  happen  ? 

Three  more  questions  instantly  propose  themselves; 
namely,  What  happens  to  snow  under  given  pressure  ? 
will  it  under  some  degrees  of  pressure  change  into  any- 
thing else  than  snow  ?  and  what  length  of  time  will  it 
take  to  effect  the  change  ? 

Hitherto,  we  have  spoken  of  snow  as  dry  only,  and 
therefore  as  solid  substance,  permanent  in  quantity  and 
quality.  You  know  that  it  very  often  is  not  dry ;  and 
that,  on  the  Alps,  in  vast  masses,  it  is  throughout  great 
part  of  the  year  thawing,  and  therefore  diminishing  in 
quantity. 

It  matters  not  the  least,  to  our  general  inquiry,  how 
much  of  it  is  wet,  or  thawing,  or  at  what  times.  I  merely 
at  present  have  to  introduce  these  two  conditions  as  ele- 
ments in  the  business.  It  is  not  dry  snow  always,  but 
often  soppy  snow — snow  and  water, — that  you  have  to 
squeeze.  And  it  is  not  freezing  snow  always,  but  very 
often  thawing  snow, — diminishing  therefore  in  bulk  every 
instant, — that  you  have  to  squeeze. 

It  does  not  matter,  I  repeat,  to  our  immediate  purpose, 
when,  or  how  far,  these  other  conditions  enter  our  ground ; 
but  it  is  best,  I  think,  to  put  the  dots  on  the  i's  as  we  go 
along.  You  have  heard  it  stated,  hinted,  suggested,  im- 


^1 

HI.    OF   ICE-CREAM.  45 

plied,  or  whatever  else  you  like  to  call  it,  again  and  again, 
by  the  modern  school  of  glacialists,  that  the  discoveries  of 
James  Forbes  were  anticipated  by  Rendu. 

15.  I  have  myself  more  respect  for  Rendu  than  any 
modern  glacialist  has.     lie  was  a  man  of  de  Saussure's  . 
temper,  and  of  more  than  de  Saussure's  intelligence  ;  and 
if  he  hadn't  had  the  misfortune  to  be  a  bishop,  would  very 
certainly  have  left  James  Forbes's  work  a  great  deal  more 
than  cut  out  for  him  ; — stitched — and  pretty  tightly — in 
most  of  the  seams.     But  he  was  a  bishop ;  and  could  only 
examine  the  glaciers  to  an  episcopic  extent ;  and  guess,  the 
best  he  could,  after  that.     His  guesses  are  nearly  always 
splendid ;  but  he  must  needs  sometimes  reason  as  well  as 
guess ;  and  he  reasons  himself  with  beautiful  plausibility, 
ingenuity,  and  learning,  up  to  the  conclusion — which  he 
announces  as  positive — that  it  always  freezes  on  the  Alps, 
even  in  summer.     James  Forbes  was  the  first  who  ascer- 
tained the  fallacy  of  this  episcopal  position  ;  and  who  an- 
nounced— to  our  no  small  astonishment — that  it  always 
thawed  on  the  Alps,  even  in  winter. 

16.  Not  superficially  of  course,  nor  in  all  places.     But 
internally,  and  in  a  great  many  places.     And  you  will  find 
it  is  an  ascertained  fact — the  first  great  one  of  which  we 
owe  the  discovery  to  him — that  all  the  year  round,  you 
must  reason  on  the  masses  of  aqueous  deposit  on  the  Alps 
as,  practically,  in  a  state  of  squash.     Not  freezing  ice  or 
snow,  nor  dry  ice  or  snow,  but  in  many  places  saturated 
with, — everywhere   affected   by, — moisture  ;    and   alwayp 


4:6  DEUCALION. 

subject,  in  enormous  masses,  to  the  conditions  of  change 
which  affect  ice  or  snow  at  the  freezing-point,  and  not  be- 
low it.  Even  James  Forbes  himself  scarcely,  I  think,  felt 
enough  the  importance  of  this  element  of  his  own  discov- 
eries, in  all  calculations  of  glacier  motion.  He  sometimes 
speaks  of  his  glacier  a  little  too  simply  as  if  it  were  a 
stream  of  undiminishing  substance,  as  of  treacle  or  tar, 
moving  under  the  action  of  gravity  only ;  and  scarcely 
enough  recognizes  the  influence  of  the  subsiding  languor 
of  its  fainting  mass,  as  a  constant  source  of  motion ;  though 
nothing  can  be  more  accurate  than  his  actual  account  of 
its  results  on  the  surface  of  the  Mer  de  Glace,  in  his  fourth 
letter  to  Professor  Jameson. 

IT.  Let  me  drive  the  notion  well  home  in  your  own 
minds,  therefore,  before  going  farther.  You  may  perma- 
nently secure  it,  by  an  experiment  easily  made  by  each  one 
of  you  for  yourselves  this  evening,  and  that  also  on  the 
minute  and  easily  tenable  scale  which  is  so  approved  at  the 
Royal  Institution  ;  for  in  this  particular  case  the  material 
conditions  may  indeed  all  be  represented  in  very  small 
compass.  Pour  a  little  hot  water  on  a  lump  of  sugar  in 
your  teaspoon.  You  will  immediately  see  the  mass  thaw, 
and  subside  by  a  series  of,  in  miniature,  magnificent  and 
appalling  catastrophes,  into  a  miniature  glacier,  which  you 
can  pour  over  the  edge  of  your  teaspoon  into  your  saucer  ; 
and  if  you  will  then  add  a  little  of  the  brown  sugar  of  our 
modern  commerce — of  a  slightly  sandy  character, — you 
may  watch  t'be  rate  of  the  flinty  erosion  upon  the  soft  silver 


III.    OF    ICE-CKEAM.  47 

of  the  teaspoon  at  your  ease,  and  with  Professor  Ramsay's 
help,  calculate  the  period  of  time  necessary  to  wear  a  hole 
through  the  bottom  of  it. 

I  think  it  would  he  only  tiresome  to  you  if  I  carried  the 
inquiry  farther  by  progressive  analysis.  You  will,  I  be- 
lieve, permit,  or  even  wish  me,  rather  to  state  summarily 
what  the  facts  are  : — their  proof,  and  the  process  of  their 
discovery,  you  wTill  find  incontrovertibly  and  finally  given 
in  this  volume, classical,  and  immortal  in  scientific  literature 
— which,  twenty-fiv-e  years  ago,  my  good  master  Dr.  Buck- 
land  ordered  me,  in  his  lecture-room  at  the  Ashmolean,  to 
get, — as  closing  all  question  respecting  the  nature  and  cause 
of  glacier  movement, — James  Forbes's '  Travels  in  the  Alps.' 

18.  The  entire  mass  of  snow  and  glacier,  (the  one  pass- 
ing gradually  and  by  infinite  modes  of  transition  into  the 
other,  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  Alps,)  is  one  great  ac- 
cumulation of  ice-cream,  poured  upon  the  tops,  and  flow- 
ing to  the  bottoms,  of  the  mountains,  under  precisely  the 
same  special  condition  of  gravity  and  coherence  as  the 
melted  sugar  poured  on  the  top  of  a  bride-cake;  but  on  a 
scale  which  induces  forms  and  accidents  of  course  pecu- 
liar to  frozen  water,  as  distinguished  from  frozen  syrup, 
and  to  the  scale  of  Mont  Blanc  and  the  Jungfrau,  as  com- 
pared to  that  of  a  bride-cake.  Instead  of  an  inch  thick, 
the  ice-cream  of  the  Alps  will  stand  two  hundred  feet 
thick, — no  thicker,  anywhere,  if  it  can  run  off  ;  but  will 
lie  in  the  hollows  like  lakes,  and  clot  and  cling  about  the 
less  abrupt  slopes  in  festooned  wreaths  of  rich  mass  and 


4-8  DEUCALION. 

sweeping  flow,  breaking  away,  where  the  steepness  becomes 
intolerable,  into  crisp  precipices  and  glittering  cliffs. 

19.  Yet  never  for  an  instant  motionless — never  for  an  in- 
stant without  internal  change,  through  all  the  gigantic  mass, 
of  the  relations  to  each  other  of  every  crystal  grain.     That 
one  which  you  break  now  from  its  wave- edge,  and  which 
melts  in  your  hand,  has  had  no  rest,  day  nor  night,  since 
it  faltered  down  from  heaven  when  you  were  a  babe  at 
the  breast ;  and  the  white  cloud  that  scarcely  veils  yon- 
der summit — seven-colored  in  the  morning  sunshine — has 
strewed  it  with  pearly  hoar-frost,  which  will  be  on  this 
spot,  trodden  by  the  feet  of  others,  in  the  day  when  you 
also  will  be  trodden  under  feet  of  men,  in  your  grave. 

20.  Of  the  infinite  subtlety,  the  exquisite  constancy  of 
this  fluid  motion,  it  is  nearly  impossible  to  form  an  idea 
in  the  least  distinct.     We  hear  that  the  ice  advances  two 
feet  in  the  day ;  and  wonder  how  such  a  thing  can  be 
possible,  unless  the  mass  crushed  and  ground  down  every- 
thing before  it.     But  think  a  little.     Two  feet  in  the  day 
is  a  foot  in  twelve  hours, — only  an  inch  in  an  hour,  (or 
say  a  little  more  in  the  daytime,  as  less  in  the  night,) — 
and  that  is  maximum  motion  in   mid-glacier.     If  your 
Geneva  watch  is  an  inch  across,  it  is  three  inches  round, 
and  the  minute-hand  of  it  moves  three  times  faster  than 
the  fastest  ice.     Fancy  the  motion  of  that  hand  so  slow  that 
it   must  take   three   hours  to  get   round  the   little  dial. 
Between  the  shores  of  this  vast  gulf  of  hills,  the  long 
wave  of  hastening  ice  only  keeps  pace  with  that  lingering 


in.    OF   ICE-CREAM.  : 

arrow,  in  its  centfal  crest;  and  that  invisible  motion 
fades  away  upwards  through  forty  years  of  slackening 
stream,  to  the  pure  light  of  dawn  on  yonder  stainless  sum- 
mit, on  which  this  morning's  snow  lies — motionless. 

21.  And  yet,  slow  as  it  is,  this  infinitesimal  rate  of  cur- 
rent is  enough  to  drain  the  vastest  gorges  of  the  Alps 
of  their  snow,  as  clearly  as  the  sluice  of  a  canal-gate 
empties  a  lock.  The  mountain  basin  included  between  the 
Aiguille  Yerte,  the  Grandes  Jorasses,  and  the  Mont 
Blanc,  has  an  area  of  about  thirty  square  miles,  and  only 
one  outlet,  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide :  yet, 
through  this  the  contents  of  the  entire  basin  are  drained 
into  the  valley  of  Chamounix  with  perfect  steadiness,  and 
cannot  possibly  fill  the  basin  beyond  a  certain  constant 
height  above  the  point  of  overflow. 

Overflow,  I  say,  deliberately;  distinguishing  always  the 
motion  of  this  true  fluid  from  that  of  the  sand  in  an  hour- 
glass, or  of  stones  slipping  in  a  heap  of  shale.  But  that 
the  nature  of  this  distinction  may  be  entirely  conceived 
by  you,  1  must  ask  you  to  pause  with  some  attention  at 
this  word,  to  'flow,' — which  attention  may  perhaps  be 
more  prudently  asked  in  a  separate  chapter. 
3 


CHAPTER  IT. 

LABITUR,    ET    LABETUR. 

(Lecture  given  cut  London  Institution,  continued,  with 
added  Illustrations.} 

1.  OF  course — we  all  know  what  flowing  means.  Well, 
it  is  to  be  hoped  so ;  but  I'm  not  sure.  Let  us  see.  The 
sand  of  the  hour-glass, — do  you  call  the  motion  of  that 
flowing  ? 

No.  It  is  only  a  consistent  and  measured  fall  of  many 
unattached  particles. 

Or  do  you  call  the  entrance  of  a  gas  through  an  aper- 
ture, out  of  a  full  vessel  into  an  empty  one,  flowing  ? 

No.     That  is  expansion — not  flux. 

Or  the  draught  through  the  keyhole  ?  No — is  your 
answer,  still.  Let  us  take  instance  in  water  itself.  The 
spring  of  a  fountain,  or  of  a  sea  breaker  into  spray.  You 
don't  call  that  flowing  ? 

No. 

Nor  i\\Qfall  of  a  fountain,  or  of  rain  ? 

No. 

Well,  the  rising  of  a  breaker, — the  current  of  water  in 
the  hollow  shell  of  it, — is  that  flowing  ?  No.  After  it  has 


IV.    LABITUR,   ET   LABETUK.  51  ^ 

broken — rushing  up  over  the  shingle,  or  impatiently  ad- 
vancing on    the   sand  2      You   begin   to  pause  in  your 

negative. 

0 

Drooping  back  from  the  shingle  then,  or  ebbing  from 
the  sand  ?  Yes  ;  flowing,  in  some  places,  certainly,  now. 

You  see  how  strict  and  distinct  the  idea  is  in  our  minds. 
"Will  you  accept — I  think  yon  may, — this  definition  of  it  ? 
Flowing  is  "  the  motion  of  liquid  or  viscous  matter  over 
solid  matter,  under  the  action  of  gravity,  without  any 
other  impelling  force." 

2.  "Will  you  accuse  me,  in  pressing  this  definition  on 
you,  of  wasting  time  in  mere  philological  nicety  ?  Permit 
me,  in  the  capacity  which  even  the  newspapers  allow  to 
me, — that  of  a  teacher  of  expression, — to  answer  you,  as 
often  before  now,  that  philological  nicety  is  philosophical 
nicety.  See  the  importance  of  it  here.  I  said  a  glacier 
flowed.  But  it  remains  a  question  whether  it  does  not  also 
spring, — whether  it  can  rise  as  a  fountain,  no  less  than 
descend  as  a  stream. 

For,  broadly,  there  are  two  methods  in  which  either  a 
stream  or  glacier  moves. 

The  first,  by  withdrawing  a  part  of  its  mass  in  front, 
the  vacancy  left  by  which,  another  part  supplies  from 
behind. 

That  is  the  method  of  a  continuous  stream, — perpetual 
deduction,*  by  what  precedes,  of  what  follows. 

*  "Ex  quo  ilia  adinirabilis  a  majoribus  aquas  facta  deductio  est." — 
Cic.  de  Div.,  1,  44. 


52  DEUCALION. 

The  second  method  of  motion  is  when  the  mass  that  is 
behind,  presses,  or  is  poured  in  upon,  the  masses  before. 
That  is  the  way  in  which  a  cataract  falls  into  a  pool,  or  a 
fountain  into  a  basin. 

Now,  in  the  first  case,  you  have  catenary  curves,  or  else 
curves  of  traction,  going  down  the  stream.  In  the  second 
case,  you  have  irregularly  concentric  curves,  and  ripples 
of  impulse  and  compression,  succeeding  each  other  round 
the  pool. 

3.  Now  the  Mer  de  Glace  is  deduced  down  its  narrow 
channel,  like  a  river ;  and  the  Glacier  des  Bossons  is  de- 
duced down  its  steep  ravine  ;  and  both  were  once  inject- 
ed into  a  pool  of  ice  in  the  valley  below,  as  the  Glacier  of 
the  Rhone  is  still.  Whereupon,  observe,  if  a  stream  falls 
into  a  basin — level-lipped  all  round — you  know  when  it 
runs  over  it  must  be  pushed  over — lifted  over.  But  if  ice 
is  thrown  into  a  heap  in  a  plain,  you  can't  tell,  without  the 
closest  observation,  how  violently  it  is  pushed  from  behind, 
or  how  softly  it  is  diffusing  itself  in  front ;  and  I  had 
never  set  my  eyes  or  wits  to  ascertain  where  compression 
in  the  mass  ceased,  and  diffusion  began,  because  I  thought 
Forbes  had  done  everything  that  had  to  be  done  in  the 
matter.  But  in  going  over  his  work  again  I  find  he  has 
left  just  one  thing  to  be  still  explained;  and  that  one 
chances  to  be  left  to  me  to  show  you  this  evening,  because, 
by  a  singular  and  splendid  Nemesis,  in  the  obstinate  rejec- 
tion of  Forbes's  former  conclusively  simple  experiments, 
and  in  the  endeavour  to  substitute  others  of  his  own,  Pro- 


IV.   LABITUR,    ET   LABETUB.  5# 

fessor  Tyndall  has  confused  himself  to  the  extreme  point 
of  not  distinguishing  these  two  conditions  of  deductive 
and  impulsive  flux.  His  incapacity  of  drawing,  and  ig- 
norance of  perspective,  prevented  him  from  constructing 
his  diagrams  either  clearly  enough  to  show  him  his  own 
mistakes,  or  prettily  enough  to  direct  the  attention  of  his 
friends  to  them  ; — and  they  luckily  remain  to  us,  in  their 
absurd  immortality. 

4.  Forbes  poured  viscous  substance  in  layers  down  a 
trough ;  let  the  stream  harden  ;  cut  it  into  as  many  sections 
as  were  required  ;  and  showed,  in  permanence,  the  actual 
conditions  of  such  viscous  motion.     Eager  to  efface  the 
memory  of  these  conclusive  experiments,  Professor  Tyn- 
dall  ('Glaciers  of  the  Alps,'  page  383)  substituted  this 
literally  c  superficial '  one  of  his  own.     He  stamped  circles 
on  the  top  of  a  viscous  current ;  found,  as  it  flowed,  that 
they  were    drawn  into  ovals ;  but  had  not  wit    to  con- 
sider, or  sense  to  see,  whether  the  area  of  the  circle  was 
enlarged  or  diminished — or   neither — during  its  change 
in    shape.     He    jumped,   like   the   rawest   schoolboy,  to 
the  conclusion   that   a   circle,   becoming   an  oval,   must 
necessarily    be    compressed  !      You    don't    compress    a 
globe  of  glass  when  you  blow  it  into  a  soda-water  bottle* 
do  you  ? 

5.  But  to   reduce  Professor   TyndalPs   problem    into 
terms.     Let   A  F,   Fig.   3  (page  54),  be  the  side  of   a 
stream  of  any  substance  whatever,  and  a  f  the  middle  of 
it ;  and  let  the  particles  at  the  middle  move  twice  as  fast  as 


54: 


DEUCALION. 


FIG.  3. 


the  particles  at  the  sides.  Now  we 
cannot  study  all  the  phenomena 
•  of  fluid  motion  in  one  diagram, 
nor  any  one  phenomenon  of  fluid 
motion  but  by  progressive  dia- 
grams ;  and  this  first  one  only 
shows  the  changes  of  form 
which  would  take  place  in  a  sub- 
stance which  moved  with  uni- 
form increase  of  rapidity  from 
side  to  centre.  No  fluid  sub- 
stance would  so  move ;  but  you 
can  only  trace  the  geometrical 
facts  step  by  step,  from  uniform 
increase  to  accelerated  increase. 
Let  the  increase  of  rapidity, 
therefore,  first  be  supposed  uni- 
form. Then,  while  the  point  A 
moves  to  B,  the  point  a  moves  to 
6',  and  any  points  once  interme- 
diate in  a  right  line  between  A  and 
<z,  will  now  be  intermediate  in  a 
right  line  between  JB  and  c,  and 
their  places  determinable  by 
verticals  from  each  to  each. 

I  need  not  be  tedious  in  farther 
describing  the  figure.  Suppose 
A  I  a  square  mile  of  the  sub- 


IV.    LABITUR,    ET   LABETUK.  55 

stance,  and  the  origin  of  motion  on  the  line  A  a.  Then 
when  the  point  A  lias  arrived  at  B,  the  point  B  has  arrived 
at  C,  the  point  a  at  c,  and  the  point  b  at  d,  and  the  mile 
square,  A  £,  has  become  the  mile  rhombic,  B  d,  of  the 
same  area  ;  and  if  there  were  a  circle  drawn  in  the  square 
A  &,  it  will  become  the  fat  ellipse  in  B  d,  and  thin  ellipse 
in  C  yj  successively. 

6.  Compressed,  thinks  Professor  Tyndall,  one  way,  and 
stretched  the  other ! 

But  the  Professor  has  never  so  much  as  understood 
what  ' stretching'  means.  He  thinks  that  ice  won't 
stretch !  Does  he  suppose  treacle,  or  oil,  will  f  The 
brilliant  natural  philosopher  has  actually,  all  through  his 
two  books  on  glaciers,  confused  viscosity  with  elasticity ! 
You  can  stretch  a  piece  of  Indian-rubber,  but  you  can 
only  diffuse  treacle,  or  oil,  or  water. 

"  But  you  can  draw  these  out  into  a  narrow  stream, 
whereas  you  cannot  pull  the  ice  ? " 

No ;  neither  can  you  pull  water,  can  you  ?  In  com- 
pressing any  substance,  you  can  apply  any  force  you  like ; 
but  in  extending  it,  you  can  only  apply  force  less  than 
that  with  which  its  particles  cohere.  You  can  pull  honey 
into  a  thin  string,  when  it  comes  out  of  the  comb ;  let  it 
be  candied,  and  you  can't  pull  it  into  a  thin  string.  Does 
that  make  it  less  a  viscous  substance  ?  You  can't  stretch 
mortar  either.  It  cracks  even  in  the  hod,  as  it  is  heaped. 
Is  it,  therefore,  less  fluent  or  manageable  in  the  mass  ? 

7.  Whereas  the  curious  fact  of  the  matter  is,  that,  in 


56  DEUCALION. 

precise  contrariety  to  Mr.  Tyndall's  idea?  ice,  (glacier  ice, 
that  is  to  say,)  will  stretch ;  and  that  treacle  or  water 
won't!  and  that's  just*the  plague  of  dealing  with  the 
whole  glacier  question — that  the  incomprehensible,  unten- 
able, indescribable  ice  will  both  squeeze  and  open ;  and 
is  slipping  through  your  fingers  all  the  time  besides,  by 
melting  away.  You  can't  deal  with  it  as  a  simple  fluid  ; 
and  still  less  as  a  simple  solid.  And  instead  of  having 
less  power  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  irregularities  of 
its  bed  than  water,  it  has  much  more; — a  great  deal  more 
of  it  will  subside  into  a  deep  place,  and  ever  so  much  of 
it  melt  in  passing  over  a  shallow  one ;  and  the  centre,  at 
whatever  rate  it  moves,  will  supply  itself  by  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  sides,  instead  of  raging  round,  like  a  stream  in 
back-water. 

8.  However,  somehow,  I  must  contrive  to  deal  at  least 
with  the  sure  fact  that  the  velocity  of  it  is  progressively 
greater  from  the  sides  to  the  centre,  and  from  the  bottom 
to  the  surface. 

Now  it  is  the  last  of  these  progressive  increments  which 
is  of  chief  importance  to  my  present  purpose. 

For  my  own  conviction  on  the  matter; — mind,  not 
theory,  for  a  man  can  always  avoid  constructing  theories, 
but  cannot  possibly  help  his  convictions,  and  may  some- 
times feel  it  right  to  state  them, — my  own  conviction  is 
that  the  ice,  when  it  is  of  any  considerable  depth,  no 
more  moves  over  the  bottom  than  the  lower  particles  of  a 
running  stream  of  honey  or  treacle  move  over  a  plate 


IV.    LABITTJR,    ET   LABETUK. 

but  that,  in  entire  rest  at  the  bottom,  except  so  far  as  it 
is  moved  by  dissolution,  it  increases  in  velocity  to  the  sur- 
face in  a  curve  of  the  nature  of  a  parabola,  or  a  logarith- 
mic curve,  capable  of  being  infinitely  prolonged,  on  the 
supposition  of  the  depth  of  the  ice  increasing  to  in- 
finity. 

9.  But  it  is  now  my  fixed  principle  not  to  care  what  I 
think,  when  a  fact  can  be  ascertained  by  looking,  or  meas- 
uring.    So,  not  having  any  observations  of   my  own  on 
this  matter,  I  seek  what  help  may  be  had  elsewhere  ;  and 
find  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Professor  Tyndall's' i  Gla- 
ciers of  the  Alps,'  two  most  valuable  observations,  made 
under  circumstances  of   considerable  danger,  calmly  en- 
countered by  the  author,  and  grumblingly  by  his  guide, — 
danger  consisting  in  the  exposure  to  a  somewhat  close  and 
well-supported   fire  of    round  and   grape  from  the    gla- 
cier of  the  Geant,  which  objected  to  having  its  velocity 
measured.     But  I  find  the  relation  of  these  adventures  so 
much  distract  me  from  the  matter  in  hand,  that  I  must 
digress  briefly  into  some  notice  of  the   general  literary 
structure  of  this  remarkable  book. 

10.  Professor  Tyndall  never  fails  to  observe  with  com- 
placency, and  to  describe  to  his  approving  readers,  how 
unclouded  the  luminous  harmonies  of  his  reason,  imagina- 
tion, and   fancy   remained,   under   conditions   which,   he 
rightly  concludes,  would  have  been  disagreeably  exciting, 
or  even  distinctly  disturbing,  to  less  courageous  persons. 
And  indeed  I  confess,  for  my  own  part,  that  my  success- 


58  DEUCALION. 

fullest  observations  have  always  been  made  while  lying 
all  ray  length  on  the  softest  grass  I  could  tind  ;  and  after 
assuring  myself  with  extreme  caution  that  if  I  chanced  to 
go  to  sleep,  (which  in  the  process  of  very  profound  obser- 
vations I  usually  do,  at  least  of  an  afternoon,)  I  am  in  no 
conceivable  peril  beyond  that  of  an  ant-bite.  Neverthe- 
less, the  heroic  Professor  does  not,  it  seems  to  me,  suffi- 
ciently recognize  the  universality  of  the  power  of  English, 
French,  German,  and  Italian  gentlemen  to  retain  their 
mental  faculties  under  circumstances  even  of  more  serious 
danger  than  the  crumbling  of  a  glacier  moraine  ;  and  to 
think  with  quickness  and  precision,  when  the  chances  of 
death  preponderate  considerably,  or  even  conclusively, 
over  those  of  life.  Nor  does  Professor  Tyndall  seem  to 
have  observed  that  the  gentlemen  possessing  this  very  ad- 
mirable power  in  any  high  degree,  do  not  usually  think 
their  own  emotions,  or  absence  of  emotions,  proper  subjects 
of  printed  history,  and  public  demonstration. 

11.  Nevertheless,  when  a  national  philosopher,  under 
showers  of  granite  grape,  places  a  stake  and  auger  against 
his  heart,  buttons  his  coat  upon  them,  and  cuts  himself  an 
oblique  staircase  up  a  wall  of  ice,  nearly  vertical,  to  a 
height  of  forty  feet  from  the  bottom ;  and  there,  unbut- 
toning his  coat,  pierces  the  ice  with  his  auger,  drives  in 
his  stake,  and  descends  without  injury,  though  during  the 
whole  operation  his  guide  "  growls  audibly,"  we  are  bound 
to  admit  his  claim  to  a  scientific  Victoria  Cross — or  at 
least  crosslet, —  and  even  his  right  to  walk  about  in  our 


IV.    LABITUR,    ET   LABETUR.  5£ 

London  drawing-rooms  in  a  gracefully  cruciferous  cos- 
tume ;  while  I  have  no  doubt  also  that  many  of  his  friends 
will  be  interested  in  such  metaphysical  particulars  and 
examples  of  serene  mental  analysis  as  he  may  choose  to 
give  them  in  the  course  of  his  autobiography.  But  the 
Professor  ought  more  clearly  to  understand  that  scientific 
writing  is  one  thing,  and  pleasant  autobiography  another ; 
and  though  an  officer  may  not  be  able  to  give  an  account 
of  a  battle  without  involving  some  statement  of  his  per- 
sonal share  in  it,  a  scientific  observer  might  with  entire 
ease,  and  much  convenience  to  the  public,  have  published 
4  The  Glaciers  of  the  Alps '  in  'two  coincident,  but  not  co- 
alescing, branches — like  the  glaciers  of  the  Giant  and  Le- 
chaud ;  and  that  out  of  the  present  inch  and  a  half  thick- 
ness of  the  volume,  an  inch  and  a  quarter  might  at  once 
have  been  dedicated  to  the  Giant  glacier  of  the  autobiog- 
raphy, and  the  remaining  quarter  of  an  inch  to  the  minor 
current  of  scientific  observation,  which,  like  the  Glacier 
de  Lechaud,  appears  to  be  characterized  by  "  the  compar- 
ative shallowness  of  the  upper  portion,"  *  and  by  its  final 
reduction  to  "  a  driblet  measuring  about  one-tenth  of  its 
former  transverse  dimensions." 

12.  It  is  true  that  the  book  is  already  divided  into  two 
portions, — the  one  described  as  "  chiefly  narrative,"  and 
the  other  as  "  chiefly  scientific."  The  chiefly  narrative 
portion  is,  indeed,  full  of  very  interesting  matter  fully  jus- 

*  'Glaciers  of  the  Alps,'  p.  288. 


60  DEUCALION. 

tif ying  its  title ;  as,  for  instance,  "  We  tumbled  so  often 
in  the  soft  snow,  and  our  clothes  and  boots  were  so  full  of 
it,  that  we  thought  we  iifight  as  well  try  the  sitting  posture 
in  sliding  down.  We  did  so,  and  descended  with  extra- 
ordinary velocity"  (p.  116).  Or  again:  "We  had  some 
tea,  which  had  been  made  at  the  Montanvert,  and  carried 
up  to  the  Grand  Mulets  in  a  bottle.  My  memory  of  that 
tea  is  not  pleasant "  (p.  73).  Or  in  higher  strains  of 
scientific  wit  and  pathos :  "  As  I  looked  at  the  objects 
which  had  now  become  so  familiar  to  me,  I  felt  that, 
though  not  viscous,  the  ice  did  not  lack  the  quality  of  ad- 
hesiveness, and  I  felt  a  little  sad  at  the  prospect  of  bidding 
it  so  soon  farewell." 

13.  But  the  merely  romantic  readers  of  this  section, 
rich  though  it  be  in  sentiment  and  adventure,  will  find 
themselves  every  now  and  then  arrested  by  pools,  as  it 
were,  of  almost  impassable  scientific  depth — such  as  the 
description  of  a  rock  "  evidently  to  be  regarded  as  an  as- 
semblage of  magnets,  or  as  a  single  magnet  full  of  conse- 
quent points  "  (p.  140).  While,  on  the  other  hand,  when 
in  the  course  of  my  own  work,  finding  myself  pressed  for 
time,  and  eager  to  collect  every  scrap  of  ascertained  data 
accessible  to  me,  I  turn  hopefully  to  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  the  "  chiefly  scientific  "  section  of  the  volume,  I  think 
it  hard  upon  me  that  I  must  read  through  three  pages  of 
narrative  describing  the  Professor's  dangers  and  address, 
before  I  can  get  at  the  two  observations  which  are  the  sum 
of  the  scientific  contents  of  the  chapter,  yet  to  the  first  of 


i 

IV.    LABITTJR,    ET   LABETUR. 

which  "  unfortunately  some  uncertainty  attached  itself," 
and  the  second  of  which  is  wanting  in  precisely  the  two 
points  which  would  have  made  it  serviceable.  First,  it 
does  not  give  the  rate  of  velocity  at  the  base,  but  five  feet 
above  the  base ;  and,  secondly,  it  gives  only  three  meas- 
urements of  motion.  Had  it  given  four,  we  could  have 
drawn  the  curve :  but  we  can  draw  any  curve  we  like 
through  three  points. 

14.  I  will  try  the  three  points,  however,  with  the  most 
probable  curve;  but  this  being  a  tedious  business,  will  re- 
serve it  for  a  separate  chapter,  which  readers  may  skip  if 
they  choose  :  and  insert,  for  the  better  satisfaction  of  any 
who  may  have  been  left  too  doubtful  by  the  abrupt  close 
of  my  second  chapter,  this  postscript,  written  the  other 
day  after  watching  the  streamlets  on  the  outlying  fells  of 
Shap. 

15.  Think  what  would  be  the  real  result,  if  any  stream 
among  our  British  hills  at  this  moment  were  cutting  its 
bed  deeper. 

In  order  to  do  so,  it  must  of  course  annually  be  able  to 
remove  the  entire  zone  of  debris  moved  down  to  its  bed 
from  the  hills  on  each  side  of  it — and  somewhat  more. 

Take  any  Yorkshire  or  Highland  stream  you  happen  to 
know,  for  example ;  and  think  what  quantity  of  debris 
must  be  annually  moved,  on  the  hill  surfaces  which  feed 
its  waters.  Remember  that  a  lamb  cannot  skip  on  their 
slopes,  but  it  stirs  with  its  hoofs  some  stone  or  grain  of 
dust  which  will  more  or  less  roll  or  move  downwards. 


62  DEUCALION. 

That  no  shower  of  rain  can  fall — no  wreath  of  snow  melt, 
without  moving  some  quantity  of  dust  downwards.  And 
that  no  frost  can  breaik  up,  without  materially  loosening 
some  vast  ledges  of  crag,  and  innumerable  minor  ones  ; 
nor  without  causing  the  fall  of  others  as  vast,  or  as  innu- 
merable. Make  now  some  effort  to  conceive  the  quantity 
of  rock  and  dust  moved  annually,  lower,  past  any  given 
level  traced  on  the  flanks  of  any  considerable  mountain 
stream,  over  the  area  it  drains — say,  for  example,  in  the 
basin  of  the  Ken  above  Kendal,  or  of  the  Wharfe  above 
Bolton  Abbey. 

16.  Then,  if  either  of  those  streams  were  cutting  their 
beds  deeper, — that  quantity  of  rock,  and  something  more, 
must  be  annually  carried  down  by  their  force,  past  Ken- 
dal bridge,  and  Bolton  stepping-stones.     Which  you  will 
find  would  occasion  phenomena  very  astonishing  indeed 
to  the  good  people  of  Kendal  and  Wharfedale. 

17.  "  But  it  need  not  be  carried  down  past  the  stepping- 
stones,"  you  say — "it  maybe  deposited  somewhere  above." 
Yes,  that  is  precisely  so ; — and  wherever  it  'Is  deposited, 
the  bed  of  the  stream,  or  of  some  tributary  streamlet,  is 
being  raised.     Nobody  notices  the  raising  of  it ; — another 
stone  or  two  among  the  wide  shingle — a  tongue  of  sand 
an  inch  or  two  broader  at  the  burnside — who  can  notice 
that?      Four  or  five   years    pass; — a  flood   comes; — and 
Farmer  So-and-So's  field  is  covered  with  slimy  ruin.     And 
Farmer  So-and-So's  field  is  an  inch  higher  than  it  was,  for 
evermore — but  who  notices  that  ?     The  shingly  stream  has 


IV.    LABITUR,   ET   LABETTJK.  63  „/ 

gone  back  into  its  bed  :  here  and  there  a  whiter  stone  or 
two  gleams  among  its  pebbles,  but  next  year  the  water 
stain  has  darkened  them  like  the  rest,  and  the  bed  is  just 
as  far  below  the  level  of  the  field  as  it  was.  And  your 
careless  geologist  says,  '  what  a  powerful  stream  it  is,  and 
how  deeply  it  is  cutting  its  bed  through  the  glen  ! ' 

18.  Now,  carry  out  this  principle  for  existing  glaciers. 
If  the  glaciers  of  Chamouni  were  cutting  their  beds  deeper, 
either  the  annual  line  of  debris  of  the  Mont  Blanc  range 
on  its  north  side  must  be  annually  carried  down  past  the 
Pont  Pelissier ;  or  the  valley  of  Chamouni  must  be  in 
process  of  filling  up,  while  the  ravines  at  its  sides  are 
being  cut  down  deeper.  Will  any  geologist,  supporting 
the  modern  glacial  theories,  venture  to  send  me,  for  the 
next  number  of  Deucalion,  his  idea,  on  this  latter,  by  him 
inevitable,  hypothesis,  of  the  profile  of  the  bottom  of  the 
Glacier  des  Bossons,  a  thousand  years  ago ;  and  a  thou- 
sand years  hence  ? 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE   VALLEY    OF    CLUSE. 

1.  WHAT  strength  of  faith  men  have  in  each  other ;  and 
how  impossible  it  is  for  them  to  be  independent  in  thought, 
however  hard  they  try  !  Not  that  they  ever  ought  to  be ; 
but  they  should  know,  better  than  they  do,  the  incum- 
brance  that  the  false  notions  of  others  are  to  them. 

Touching  this  matter  of  glacial  grinding  action  ;  you 
will  find  every  recent  writer  taking  up,  without  so  much  as 
a  thought  of  questioning  it,  the  notion  adopted  at  first  care- 
less sight  of  a  glacier  stream  by  some  dull  predecessor  of 
all  practical  investigation — that  the  milky  colour  of  it  is 
all  produced  by  dust  ground  off  the  rocks  at  the  bottom. 
And  it  never  seems  to  occur  to  any  one  of  the  Alpine  Club 
men,  who  are  boasting  perpetually  of  their  dangers  from 
falling  stones ;  nor  even  to  professors  impeded  in  their 
most  important  observations  by  steady  fire  of  granite 
grape,  that  falling  stones  may  probably  knock  their  edges 
off  when  they  strike  ;  and  that  moving  banks  and  fields  of 
moraine,  leagues  long,  and  leagues  square,  of  which  every 
stone  is  shifted  a  foot  forward  every  day  on  a  surface 
melting  beneath  them,  must  in  such  shifting  be  liable  to 
attrition  enough  to  produce  considerably  more  dust,  and 


V.    THE   VALLEY    OF    CLUSE.  65' 

that  of  the  finest  kind,  than  any  glacier  stream  carries 
down  with  it — not  to  speak  of  processes  of  decomposition 
accelerated,  on  all  surfaces  liable  to  them,  by  alternate 
action  of  frost  and  fierce  sunshine. 

2.  But  I  have  not,  as  yet,  seen  any  attempts  to  deter- 
mine even  the  first  data  on  which  the  question  of  attrition 
must  be  dealt  with.     I  put  it,  in  simplicity,  at  the  close  of 
last  chapter.     But,  in  its  full  extent,  the  inquiry  ought  not 
to  be  made  merely  of  the  bed  of  the  Glacier  des  Bossons ; 
but  of  the  bed  of  the  Arve,  from  the  Col  de  Balme  to 
Geneva  ;  in  which  the  really  important  points  for  study 
are  the  action  of  its  waters  at  Pont  Pelissier ; — at  the  falls 
below  Servoz  ; — at  the  portal  of  Cluse ; — and  at  the  north- 
ern end  of  the  slope  of  the  Saleve. 

3.  For  these  four  points  are  the  places  where,  if  at  all, 
sculptural  action  is  really  going  on  upon  its  bed  :  at  those 
points,  if  at  all,  the  power  of  the  Second  JEra,  the  sera  of 
sculpture,  is  still  prolonged  into  this  human  day  of  ours. 
As  also  it  is  at  the  rapids  and  falls  of  all  swiftly  descend- 
ing rivers.     The  one  vulgar  and  vast  deception  of  Niagara 
has  blinded  the  entire  race  of  modern  geologists  to  the 
primal  truth  of  mountain  form,  namely,  that  the  rapids 
and  cascades  of  their  streams  indicate,  not  points  to  which 
the  falls  have  receded,  but  places  where  the  remains  of 
once  colossal  cataracts  still  exist,  at  the  places  eternally 
(in  human  experience)  appointed  for  the  formation  of  such 
cataracts,  by  the  form  and  hardness  of  the  local  rocks. 
The  rapids  of  the  Amazon,  the  Nile,  and  the  Rhine,  obey 


66  DEUCALION. 

precisely  the  same  law  as  the  little  Wharfe  at  its  Strid,  or 
as  the  narrow  i  rivus  aquas  '  which,  under  a  bank  of  straw- 
berries in  my  own  tiny  garden,  has  given  me  perpetual 
trouble  to  clear  its  channel  of  the  stones  brought  down  in 
flood,  while,  just  above,  its  place  of  picturesque  cascade, 
is  determined  for  it  by  a  harder  bed  of  Coniston  flags,  and 
the  little  pool,  below  that  cascade,  never  encumbered  with 
stones  at  all. 

4.  Now  the  bed  of  the  Arve,  from  the  crest  of  the  Col 
de  Balme  to  Geneva,  has  a  fall  of  about  5,000  feet ;  and 
if  any  young  Oxford  member  of  the  Alpine  Club  is  mind- 
ed to  do  a  piece  of  work  this  vacation,  which  in  his  old 
age,  when  he  comes  to  take  stock  of  himself,  and  edit  the 
fragments  of  himself,  as  I  am  now  sorrowfully  doing,  he 
will  be  glad  to  have  done,  (even  though  he  risked  neither 
his  own  nor  any  one  else's  life  to  do  it,)  let  him  survey 
that  bed  accurately,  and  give  a  profile  of    it,  with  the 
places  and  natures  of  emergent  rocks,  and  the  ascertain- 
able  depths  and  dates  of  alluvium  cut  through,  or  in  course 
of  deposition. 

5.  After  doing  this  piece  of  work  carefully,  he  will 
probably  find  some  valuable  ideas  in  his  head  concerning 
the  proportion  of  the  existing  stream  of  the  Arve  to  that 
which  once  flowed  from  the  glacier  which  deposited  the 
moraine  of  Les  Tines ;  and  again,  of  that  torrent  to  the 
infinitely  vaster  one  of  the  glacier  that  deposited  the  great 
moraine  of  St.  Gervais  ;  and  finally  of  both,  to  the  cliffs  of 
Cluse,  which  have  despised  and  resisted  them.     And  ideas 


V.    THE    VALLEY    OF   CLUSE.  07 

which,  after  good  practical  work,  he  finds  in  his  head,  are 
likely  to  be  good  for  something  :  but  he  must  not  seek  for 
them ;  all  thoughts  worth  having  come  like  sunshine, 
whether  we  will  or  no :  the  thoughts  not  worth  having, 
are  the  little  lucifer  matches  we  strike  ourselves. 

6.  And  1  hasten  the  publication  of   this   number   of 
Deucalion,  to  advise  any  reader  who  cares  for  the  dreary 
counsel  of  an  old-fashioned  Alpine  traveller,  to  see  the 
valley  of  Cluse  this  autumn,  if  he  may,  rather  than  any 
other  scene  among  the  Alps  ; — for  if  not  already  destroyed, 
it  must  be  so,  in  a  few  months  more,  by  the  railway  which 
is  to  be  constructed  through  it,  for  the  transport  of  Euro- 
pean human  diluvium.     The  following  note  of  my  last 
walk   there,  written   for   my   autumn   lectures,  may   be 
worth   preserving   among   the   shingle   of   my   scattered 
work. 

7.  1  had  been,  for  six  months  in  Italy,  never  for  a  sin- 
gle moment  quit  of  liability  to  interruption  of  thought. 
By  day  or  night,  whenever  I  was  awake,  in  the  streets  of 
every  city,  there  were  entirely  monstrous  and  inhuman 
noises  in  perpetual  recurrence.     The  violent  rattle  of  car- 
riages, driven  habitually  in  brutal  and  senseless  haste,  or 
creaking  and  thundering  under  loads  too  great  for  their 
cattle,  urged  on  by  perpetual  roars  and  shouts  :  wild  bel- 
lowing  and  howling  of   obscene  wretches  far   into  the 
night :  clashing  of  church  bells,  in  the  morning,   dashed 
into  reckless  discord,  from  twenty  towers  at  once,  as  if: 
rung  by  devils  to  defy  and  destroy  the  quiet  of  God's  si 


63  DEUCALION. 

and  mock  the  laws  of  His  harmony  :  filthy,  stridulous 
shrieks  and  squeaks,  reaching  for  miles  into  the  quiet  air, 
from  the  railroad  stations  at  every  gate :  and  the  vocif- 
eration, endless,  and  frantic,  of  a  passing  populace  whose 
every  word  was  in  mean  passion,  or  in  unclean  jest.  Liv- 
ing in  the  midst  of  this,  and  of  vulgar  sights  more  horri- 
ble than  the  sounds,  for  six  months,  I  found  myself — sud- 
denly, as  in  a  dream — walking  again  alone  through  the 
valley  of  Cluse,  unchanged  since  I  knew  it  first,  when 
I  was  a  boy  of  fifteen,  quite  forty  years  ago ; — and  in 
perfect  quiet,  and  with  the  priceless  completion  of  quiet, 
that  I  was  without  fear  of  any  outcry  or  base  disturbance 
of  it. 

8.  But  presently,  as  I  walked,  the  calm  was  deepened, 
instead  of  interrupted,  by  a  murmur — first  low,  as  of  bees, 
and  then  rising  into  distinct  harmonious  chime  of  deep 
bells,  ringing  in  true  cadences — but  I  could  not  tell  where. 
The  cliffs  on  each  side  of  the  valley  of  Cluse  vary  from 
1,500  to  above  2,000  feet  in  height ;  and,  without  abso- 
lutely echoing  the  chime,  they  so  accepted,  prolonged,  and 
diffused  it,  that  at  first  I  thought  it  came  from  a  village 
high  up  and  far  away  among  the  hills ;  then  presently  it 
came  down  to  me  as  if  from  above  the  cliff  under  which  I 
was  walking ;  then  I  turned  about  and  stood  still,  wonder- 
ing ;  for  the  whole  valley  was  filled  with  the  sweet  sound, 
entirely  without  local  or  conceivable  origin  :  and  only 
after  some  twenty  minutes'  walk,  the  depth  of  tones,  grad- 
ually increasing,  showed  me  that  they  came  from  the 


V.    THE   VALLEY   OF   CLUSE.  69 

tower  of  Maglans  in  front  of  me  ;  but  when  I  actually 
got  into  the  village,  the  cliffs  on  the  other  side  so  took  up 
the  ringing,  that  I  again  thought  for  some  moments  I  was 
wrong. 

Perfectly  beautiful,  all  the  while,  the  sound,  and  ex- 
quisitely varied, — from  ancient  bells  of  perfect  tone  and 
series,  rung  with  decent  and  joyful  art. 

"  What  are  the  bells  ringing  so  to-day  for, — it  is  no 
fete  ? "  I  asked  of  a  woman  who  stood  watching  at  a  gar- 
den gate. 

"  For  a  baptism,  sir." 

And  so  I  went  on,  and  heard  them  fading  back,  and 
lost  among  the  same  bewildering  answers  of  the  mountain 
air. 

9.  Now  that  half-hour's  walk  was  to  me,  and  I  think 
would  have  been  to  every  man  of  ordinarily  well-trained 
human  and  Christian  feeling — I  do  not  say  merely  worth 
the  whole  six  months  of  my  previous  journey  in  Italy ; — 
it  was  a  reward  for  the  endurance  and  horror  of  the  six 
months'   previous  journey;   but,  as  many  here   may  not 
know  what  the  place  itself  is  like,  and  may  think  I  am 
making  too  much  of  a  little  pleasant  bell-ringing,  I  must 
tell  you  what  the  valley  of  Cluse  is  in  itself. 

10.  Of  '  Cluse,'  the  closed  valley, — not  a  ravine,  but 
a  winding  plain,  between  very  great  mountains,  rising  for 
the  most  part  in  cliffs — but  cliffs  which  retire  one  behind 
the  other  above  slopes  of  pasture  and  forest.     ( Now  as  I 
am  writing  this  passage  in  a  country  parsonage — of  Cow- 


70  DEUCALION. 

ley,  near  Uxbridge, — I  am  first  stopped  by  a  railroad 
whistle  two  minutes  and  a  half  long,*  and  then  by  the 
rumble  and  grind  of  a  slow  train,  which  prevents  me 
from  hearing  my  own  words,  or  being  able  to  think,  so 
that  I  must  simply  wait  for  ten  minutes,  till  it  is  past.) 

It  being  past,  I  can  go  on.  Slopes  of  pasture  and  for- 
est, I  said,  mingled  with  arable  land,  in  a  way  which  you 
can  only  at  present  see  in  Savoy ;  that  is  to  say,  you  have 
walnut  and  fruit  trees  of  great  age,  mixed  with  oak, 
beech,  and  pine,  as  they  all  choose  to  grow — il  seems  as  if 
the  fruit  trees  planted  themselves  as  freely  as  the  pines. 
I  imagine  this  to  be  the  consequence  of  a  cultivation  of 
very  ancient  date  under  entirely  natural  laws ;  if  a  plum- 
tree  or  a  walnut  planted  itself,  it  was  allowed  to  grow ;  if 
it  came  in  the  way  of  anything  or  anybody,  it  would  be 
cut  down;  but  on  the  whole  the  trees  grew  as  they  liked; 
and  the  fields  were  cultivated  round  them  in  such  spaces 
as  the  rocks  left ; — ploughed,  where  the  level  admitted, 
with  a  ploughshare  lightly  constructed,  but  so  huge  that 
it  looks  more  like  the  beak  of  a  trireme  than  a  plough, 
two  oxen  forcing  it  to  heave  aside  at  least  two  feet  depth 
of  the  light  earth ; — no  fences  anywhere ;  winding  field 
walks,  or  rock  paths,  from  cottage  to  cottage ;  these  last 
not  of  the  luxurious  or  trim  Bernese  type,  nor  yet  com- 
fortless chalets;  but  sufficient  for  orderly  and  virtuous 
life :  in  outer  aspect,  beautiful  exceedingly,  just  because 

*  Counted  by  watch,  for  I  knew  by  its  manner  it  would  last,  and 
measured  it. 


V.    THE   VALLEY   OF   CLTJSE.  71 

their  steep  roofs,  white  walls,  and  wandering  vines  had 
no  pretence  to  perfectness,  but  were  wild  as  their  hills. 
All  this  pastoral  country  lapped  into  inlets  among  the 
cliffs,  vast  belts  of  larch  and  pine  cresting  or  clouding  the 
higher  ranges,  whose  green  meadows  change  as  they  rise, 
into  mossy  slopes,  and  fade  away  at  last  among  the  grey 
ridges  of  rock  that  are  soonest  silvered  with  autumnal 
snow. 

11.  The  ten-miles  length  of  this  valley,  between  Cluse 
and  St.  Martin's,  include  more  scenes  of  pastoral  beauty 
and  mountain  power  than  all  the  poets  of  the  world  have 
imagined  ;  and  present  more  decisive  and  trenchant  ques- 
tions respecting  mountain  structure  than  all  the  philoso- 
phers of  the  world  could  answer :   yet  the  only  object 
which  occupies  the  mind  of  the  European  travelling  pub- 
lic, respecting  it,  is  to  get  through  it,  if  possible,  under 
the  hour. 

12.  I  spoke  with  sorrow,  deeper   than   my  words  at- 
tempted to  express,  in  my  first  lecture,  of  the  blind  rush- 
ing of  our  best  youth  through  the  noblest  scenery  of  the 
Alps,  without  once  glancing  at  it,  that  they  might  amuse, 
or  kill,  themselves  on  their  snow.     That  the  claims  of  all 
sweet  pastoral  beauty,  of  all  pious  domestic  life,  for  a 
moment's  pause  of  admiration  or  sympathy,  should  be  un- 
felt,  in  the  zest  and  sparkle  of  boy's  vanity  in  summer 
play,  may  be  natural  at  all  times ;  and  inevitable  while 
our  youth  remain  ignorant  of  art,  and  defiant  of  religion  ; 
but  that,  in  the  present  state  of  science,  when  every  eye 


72  DEUCALION. 

is  busied  with  the  fires  in  the  Moon  and  the  shadows  in 
the  Sun,  no  eye  should  occupy  itself  with  the  ravines  of 
its  own  world,  nor  with  the  shadows  which  the  sun  casts 
on  the  cliffs  of  them  ;  that  the  simplest, — I  do  not  say 
problems,  but  bare  facts,  of  structure, — should  still  be  un- 
represented, and  the  outmost  difficulties  of  rock  history 
untouched ;  while  dispute,  and  babble,  idler  than  the 
chafed  pebbles  of  the  wavering  beach,  clink,  jar,  and  jan- 
gle on  from  year  to  year  in  vain, — surely  this,  in  our 
great  University,  I  am  bound  to  declare  to  be  blameful ; 
and  to  ask  you,  with  more  than  an  artist's  wonder,  why 
this  fair  valley  of  Cluse  is  now  closed  indeed,  and  forsaken, 
"clasped  like  a  missal  shut  where  Paynims  pray;"  and, 
with  all  an  honest  inquirer's  indignation,  to  challenge — in 
the  presence  of  our  Master  of  Geology,  happily  one  of  its 
faithful  and  true  teachers,*  the  Speakers  concerning  the 
Earth, — the  geologists,  not  of  England  only,  but  of 
Europe  and  America, — either  to  explain  to  you  the  struc- 
ture or  sculpture  of  this  f  renownedest  cliff  in  all  the  Alps, 
under  which  Tell  leaped  ashore  ;  or  to  assign  valid  reason 
for  the  veins  in  the  pebbles  which  every  Scotch  lassie 
wears  for  her  common  jewellery. 

*  Mr.  Prestwich.  I  have  to  acknowledge,  with  too  late  and  vain 
gratitude,  the  kindness  and  constancy  of  the  assistance  given  me,  on  all 
occasions  when  I  asked  it,  by  his  lamented  predecessor  in  the  Oxford 
Professorship  of  Geology,  Mr.  Phillips. 

f  The  cliff  between  Fluelen  and  Brunnen,  on  the  lake  of  Uri,  of 
which  Turner's  drawing  was  exhibited  at  this  lecture. 


CHAPTER  VL 

OF   BUTTER    AND  HONEY. 

1.  THE  last  chapter,  being  properly  only  a  continuation 
of  the  postscript  to  the  fourth,  has  delayed  me  so  long 
from  my  question  as  to  ice-curves,  that  I  cannot  get  room 
for  the  needful  diagrams  and  text  in  this  number ;  which 
is  perhaps  fortunate,  for  I  believe  it  will  be  better  first  to 
explain  to  the  reader  more  fully  why  the  ascertainment  of 
this  curve  of  vertical  motion  is  so  desirable. 

To  which  explanation,  very  clear  definition  of  some 
carelessly  used  terms  will  be  essential. 

2.  The  extremely  scientific  Professor  Tyndall  always 
uses   the   terms   Plastic,   and   Viscous,  as   if   they  were 
synonymous.     But  they  express  entirely  different  condi- 
tions of  matter      The  first  is  the  term  proper  to  be  used 
of  the  state  of  butter,  on  which  you  can  stamp  whatever 
you  choose ;  and   the  stamp  will  stay ;  the  second   ex- 
presses that  of  honey,  on   which  you  can  indeed  stamp 
what  you  choose ;  but  the  stamp  melts  away  forthwith. 

And  of  viscosity  itself  there  are  two  distinct  varieties — 
one  glutinous,  or  gelatinous,  like  that  of  treacle  or  tapioca 
soup  ;  and  the  other  simply  adhesive,  like  that  of  mercury 

or  melted  lead. 
4 


74  DEUCALION. 

And  of  both  plasticity  and  viscosity  there  are  infinitely 
various  degrees  in  different  substances,  from  the  perfect 
and  absolute  plasticity«of  gold,  to  the  fragile,  and  imper- 
fect, but  to  man  more  precious  than  any  quality  of  gold, 
plasticity  of  clay,  and,  most  precious  of  all,  the  blunt  and 
dull  plasticity  of  dough ;  and  again,  from  the  vigorous 
and  binding  viscosity  of  stiff  glue,  to  the  softening  vis- 
cosity of  oil,  and  tender  viscosity  of  old  wine.  I  am 
obliged  therefore  to  ask  my  readers  to  learn,  and  observe 
very  carefully  in  our  future  work,  these  following  defini- 
tions. 

Plastic. — Capable  of  change  of  form  under  external 
force,  without  any  loss  of  continuity  of  substance;  and  of 
retaining  afterwards  the  form  imposed  on  it. 

Gold  is  the  most  perfectly  plastic  substance  we  com- 
monly know  ;  clay,  butter,  etc.,  being  more  coarsely  and 
ruggedly  plastic,  and  only  in  certain  consistencies  or  at 
certain  temperatures. 

Viscous. — Capable  of  change  of  form  tinder  external 
force,  but  not  of  retaining  the  form  imposed  /  being 
languidly  obedient  to  the  force  of  gravity,  and  necessarily 
declining  to  the  lowest  possible  level, — as  lava,  treacle,  or 
honey. 

Ductile. — Capable  of  being  extended  by  traction  with- 
out loss  of  continuity  of  substance.  Gold  is  both  plastic 
and  ductile ;  but  clay,  plastic  only,  not  ductile  ;  while 
most  melted  metals  are  ductile  only,  but  not  plastic. 

Malleable. — Plastic  only  under  considerable  force. 


VI.    OF    BUTTER    AND    HONEY.  75  „ 

3.  We  must  never  let  any  of  these  words  entangle,  as 
necessary,  the  idea  belonging  to  another. 

A  plastic  substance  is  not  necessarily  ductile,  though 
gold  is  both;  a  viscous  substance  is  not  necessarily 
ductile,  though  treacle  is  both  ;  and  the  quality  of  elas- 
ticity, though  practically  inconsistent  with  the  character 
either  of  a  plastic  body,  or  a  viscous  one,  may  enter  both 
the  one  and  the  other  as  a  gradually  superadded  or  inter- 
ferent  condition,  in  certain  states  of  congelation  ;  as  in 
indian-rubber,  glass,  sealing-wax,  asphalt,  or  basalt. 

I  think  the  number  of  substances  I  have  named  in  this 
last  sentence,  and  the  number  of  entirely  different  states 
which  in  an  instant  will  suggest  themselves  to  you,  as 
characteristic  of  each,  at,  and  above,  its  freezing  or  solidi- 
fying point,  may  show  at  once  how  careful  we  should  be 
in  defining  the  notion  attached  to  the  words  we  use ;  and 
how  inadequate,  without  specific  limitation  and  qualifica- 
tion, any  word  must  be,  to  express  all  the  qualities  of  any 
given  substance. 

4.  But,  above  all  substances  that  can  be  proposed   for 
definition  of  quality,  glacier  ice  is  the  most  defeating. 
For  it  is  practically  plastic ;  but  actually  viscous  ; — and 
that  to  the  full  extent.     You  can  beat  or  hammer  it,  like 
gold  ;  and  it  will  stay  in  the  form  you  have  beaten  it  into, 
for  a  time  ; — and  so  long  a  time,   that,   on   all   instant 
occasions  of  plasticity,  it  is  practically  plastic.     But  only 
have  patience  to  wait  long  enough,  and  it  will   run  down 
out  of  the  form  you  have  stamped  on  it,  as  honey  does 


76  DEUCALION. 

so   that,  actually  and   inherently,  it   is  viscous,  and   not 
plastic. 

5.  Here  then,  at  last,*!  have  got  Forbes's  discovery  and 
assertion  put  into  accurately  intelligible  terms; — very  in- 
credible terms,  I  doubt  not,  to  most  readers. 

There  is  not  the  smallest  hurry,  however,  needful  in  be- 
lieving them  :  only  let  us  understand  clearly  what  it  is  we 
either  believe  or  deny  ;  and  in  the  meantime,  return  to  our 
progressive  conditions  of  snow  on  the  simplest  supposable 
terms,  as  shown  in  my  first  plate. 

6.  On  a  conical  mountain,  such  as  that  represented  in 
Fig.  6,  wre  are  embarrassed  by  having  to  calculate  the  sub- 
traction by  avalanche  down  the  slopes.     Let  us  therefore 
take  rather,  for  examination,  a  place  where  the  snow  can 
lie  quiet. 

Let  Fig.  7,  Plate  I.,  represent  a  hollow  in  rocks  at  the 
summit  of  a  mountain  above  the  line  of  perpetual  snow, 
the  lowest  watershed  being  at  the  level  indicated  by  the 
dotted  line.  Then  the  snow,  once  fallen  in  this  hollow, 
can't  get  out  again  ;  but  a  little  of  it  is  taken  away  every 
year,  partly  by  the  heat  of  the  ground  below,  partly  by 
surface  sunshine  and  evaporation,  partly  by  filtration  of 
water  from  above,  while  it  is  also  saturated  with  water  in 
thaw-time,  up  to  the  level  of  watershed.  Consequently  it 
must  subside  every  year  in  the  middle ;  and,  as  the  mass 
remains  unchanged,  the  same  quantity  must  be  added  every 
year  at  the  top, — the  excess  being  always,  of  course,  blown 
away,  or  dropped  off,  or  thawed  above,  in  the  year  it  falls. 


VI.    OF   BUTTER   AND    HONEY.  77^ 

7.  Hence  the   entire   mass  will   be   composed,  at  any 
given  time,  of  a  series  of  beds  somewhat  in  the  arrange- 
ment given   in  Fig.  8  ;  more   remaining  of  each  year's 
snow  in  proportion  to  its  youth,  and  very  little  indeed  of 
the  lowest  and  oldest  bed. 

It  must  subside,  I  say,  every  year  ; — but  how  much  is 
involved,  of  new  condition,  in  saying  this  !  Take  the  ques- 
tion in  the  simplest  possible  terms ;  and  let  Fig.  9  repre- 
sent a  cup  or  crater  full  of  snow,  level  in  its  surface  at  the 
end  of  winter.  During  the  summer,  there  will  be  large 
superficial  melting  ;  considerable  lateral  melting  by  rever- 
beration from  rock,  and  lateral  drainage  ;  bottom  melting 
from  ground  heat,  not  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  inch, — 
(Forbes's  Travels,  page  364,) — a  quantity  which  we  may 
practically  ignore.  Thus  the  mass,  supposing  the  sub- 
stance of  it  immovable  in  position,  would  be  reduced  by 
superficial  melting  during  the  year  to  the  form  approxi- 
mately traced  by  the  dotted  line  within  it,  in  Fig.  9. 

8.  But  how  of  the  interior  melting  ?     Every  interstice 
and  fissure  in  the  snow,  during  summer,  is  filled  either 
with  warm  air,  or  warm  water  in  circulation  through  it, 
and  every  separate  surface  of  crystal  is  undergoing  its  own 
degree  of  diminution.     And  a  constant  change  in  the  con- 
ditions of  equilibrium  results  on  every  particle  of  the  mass ; 
and  a  constant  subsidence  takes  place,  involving  an  entirely 
different  relative  position  of  every  portion  of  it  at  the  end 
of  the  year. 

9.  But  I  cannot,  under  any  simple  geometrical  figure, 


78  DEUCALION. 

give  an  approximation  to  the  resultant  directions  of  change 
in  form  ;  because  the  density  of  the  snow  must  be  in  some 
degree  proportioned  to  the  depth,  and  the  melting  less,  in 
proportion  to  the  density. 

Only  at  all  events,  towards  the  close  of  the  year,  the 
mass  enclosed  by  the  dotted  line  in  Fig.  9  will  have  sunk 
into  some  accommodation  of  itself  to  the  hollow  bottom  of 
the  crater,  as  represented  by  the  continuous  line  in  Fig.  10. 
And,  over  that,  the  next  winter  will  again  heap  the  snow 
to  the  cup-brim,  to  be  reduced  in  the  following  summer ;  but 
now  through  two  different  states  of  consistence,  to  the  bulk 
limited  by  the  dotted  line  in  Fig.  10. 

10.  In  a  sequence  of  six  years,  therefore,  we  shall  have 
a  series  of  beds  approximately  such  as  in  Fig.  11 ; — ap 
proximately  observe,  I  say  always,  being  myself  wholly  un- 
able to  deal  with  the  complexities  of  the  question,  and  only 
giving  the  diagram  for  simplest  basis  of  future  investiga- 
tion, by  the  first  man  of  mathematical  knowledge  and  prac- 
tical common  sense,  who  will  leave  off  labouring  for  the  con- 
tradiction of  his  neighbours,  and  apply  himself  to  the  hither- 
to despised  toil  of  the  ascertainment  of  facts.  And  when  he 
has  determined  what  the  positions  of  the  strata  will  be  in 
a  perfectly  uniform  cup,  such  as  that  of  which  the  half  is 
represented  in  perspective  in  Fig.  12,  let  him  next  inquire 
what  would  have  happened  to  the  mass,  if,  instead  of  being 
deposited  in  a  cup  enclosed,  on  all  sides,  it  had  been  de- 
posited in  an  amphitheatre  open  on  one,  as  in  the  section 
shown  in  Fig.  12.  For  that  is  indeed  the  first  radical 
problem  to  be  determined  respecting  glacier  motion. 


1        s. 


VI.    OF   BUTTEB   AND    HONEY.  79   ' 

Difficult  enough,  if  approached  even  with  a  clear  head, 
and  open  heart ;  acceptant  of  all  help  from  former  observ- 
ers, and  of  all  hints  from  nature  and  heaven ;  but  very  to- 
tally insoluble,  when  approached  by  men  whose  poor  capac- 
ities for  original  thought  are  unsteadied  by  conceit,  and 
paralyzed  by  envy. 

11.  In  my  second  plate,  I  have  given,  side  by  side,  a 
reduction,  to  half-scale,  of  part  of  Forbes's  exquisite  chart 
of  the  Mer  de  Glace,  published  in  1845,  from  his  own 
survey  made  in  1842  ;  and  a  reproduction,  approximately 
in  facsimile,  of  Professor  Tyndall's  woodcut,  from  his 
own  ( eye-sketch'  of  the  same  portion  of  the  glacier  "as 
seen  from  the  cleft  station,  Trelaporte,"  published  in 
I860.* 

That  Professor  Tyndall  is  unable  to  draw  anything  as 
seen  from  anywhere,  I  observe  to  be  a  matter  of  much  self- 
congratulation  to  him  ;  such  inability  serving  farther  to  es- 
tablish the  sense  of  his  proud  position  as  a  man  of  science, 
above  us  poor  artists,  who  labour  under  the  disadvantage 
of  being  able  with  some  accuracy  to  see,  and  with  some 
fidelity  to  represent,  what  we  wish  to  talk  about.  But 
when  he  found  himself  so  resplendently  inartistic,  in  the 
eye-sketch  in  question,  that  the  expression  of  his  scientific 
vision  became,  for  less  scientific  persons,  only  a  very  bad 

*  '  Glaciers  of  the  Alps,'  p.  869.  Observe  also  that  my  engraving,  in 
consequence  of  the  reduced  scale,  is  grievously  inferior  to  Forbes'a 
work  ;  but  quite  effectually  and  satisfactorily  reproduces  Professor 
Tyndall's,  of  the  same  size  as  the  original. 


80 


DECTCALION. 


map,  it  was  at  least  incumbent  on  his  Royally-social  Emi 
nence  to  ascertain  whether  any  better  map  of  the  same 
places  had  been  puBlished  before.  And  it  is  indeed 
clear,  in  other  places  of  his  book,  that  he  was  conscious 
of  the  existence  of  Forbes's  chart ;  but  did  not  care  to 
refer  to  it  on  this  occasion,  because  it  contained  the  cor- 
rection of  a  mistake  made  by  Forbes  in  1842,  which  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  wanted,  himself,  to  have  the  credit  of  cor- 
recting ;  leaving  the  public  at  the  same  time  to  suppose 
it  had  never  been  corrected  by  its  author. 

12.  This   manner,  and   temper,  of   reticence,  with   its 
relative  personal   loquacity,   is  not  one  in  which  noble 
science  can  be  advanced  ;  or  in  which  even  petty  science 
can   be  increased.     Had  Professor   Tyndall,  instead  of 
seeking  renown   by  the  exposition  of   Forbes's  few  and 
minute  mistakes,  availed   himself   modestly  of   Forbes's 
many  and  great  discoveries,  ten  years  of  arrest  by  futile 
discussion    and    foolish    speculation    might    have    been 
avoided  in  the  annals  of  geology ;  and  assuredly  it  would 
not  have  been  left  for  a  despised  artist  to  point  out  to 
you,  this  evening,  the  one  circumstance  of  importance  in 
glacier  structure  which  Forbes  has  not  explained. 

13.  You  may  perhaps  have  heard  I  have  been  found- 
ing my  artistic  instructions  lately  on  the  delineation  of 
a  jam-pot.     Delighted   by   the   appearance    of    that    in- 
structive  object,  in  the   Hotel   du   Mont   Blanc,   at   St. 
Martin's,  full  of  Chamouni  honey,  of  last  year,  stiff  and 
white,  I  found  it  also  gave  me  command  of  the  best  pos- 


VI.    OF   BUTTER   AND    HONEY. 

sible  material  for  examination  of  glacial  action  on  a  small 
scale. 

Pouring  a  little  of  its  candied  contents  out  upon  my 
plate,  by  various  tilting  of  which  I  could  obtain  any  rate 
of  motion  I  wished  to  observe  in  the  viscous  stream  ;  and 
encumbering  the  sides  and  centre  of  the  said  stream  with 
magnificent  moraines  composed  of  crumbs  of  toast,  I  was 
able,  looking  alternately  to  table  and  window,  to  compare 
the  visible  motion  of  the  mellifluous  glacier,  and  its  trans- 
ported toast,  with  the  less  traceable,  but  equally  constant, 
motion  of  the  glacier  of  Bionnassay,  and  its  transported 
granite.  And  I  thus  arrived  at  the  perception  of  the 
condition  of  glacial  structure,  which  though,  as  I  told  you 
just  now,  not,  I  believe,  hitherto  illustrated,  it  is  entirely 
in  your  power  to  illustrate  for  yourselves  in  the  following 
manner.  « 

If  you  will  open  a  fresh  pot  of  honey  to-morrow  at 
breakfast,  and  take  out  a  good  table-spoonful  of  it,  you 
will  see,  of  course,  the  surface  generally  ebb  in  the  pot. 
Put  the  table-spoonful  back  in  a  lump  at  one  side,  and 
you  will  see  the  surface  generally  flow  in  the  pot.  The 
lump  you  have  put  on  at  the  side  does  not  diffuse  itself 
over  the  rest ;  but  it  sinks  into  the  rest,  and  the  entire  sur- 
face rises  round  it,  to  its  former  level. 

Precisely  in  like  manner,  every  pound  of  snow  you  put 
on  the  top  of  Mont  Blanc,  eventually  makes  the  surface 
of  the  glaciers  rise  at  the  bottom.* 

*  Practically  hyperbolic  expression,  but  mathematically  true. 
4* 


82  DEUCALION. 

15.  That  is  not  impulsive  action,  mind  you.  That  is 
mere  and  pure  viscous  action — the  communication  of 
force  equally  in  every  "direction  among  slowly  moving 
particles.  I  once  thought  that  this  force  might  also  be 
partially  elastic,  so  that  whereas,  however  vast  a  mass  of 
honey  you  had  to  deal  with, — a  Niagara  of  honey, — you 
never  could  get  it  to  leap  like  a  sea-wave  at  rocks,  ice 
might  yet,  in  its  fluency,  retain  this  power  of  leaping; 
only  slowly, — taking  a  long  time  to  rise,  yet  obeying  the 
same  mathematic  law  of  impulse  as  a  sea-breaker;  but 
ascending  through  seras  of  surge,  and  communicating, 
through  seras,  its  recoil.  The  little  ripple  of  the  stream 
breaks  on  the  shore, — quick,  quick,  quick.  The  Atlantic 
wave  slowly  uplifts  itself  to  its  plunge,  and  slowly  appeases 
its  thunder.  The  ice  wave — if  there  be  one — would  be 
to  the  Atlantic  wave  as  the  ocean  is  to  the  brook. 

If  there  be  one !  The  question  is  of  immense — of  vital 
— importance,  to  that  of  glacier  action  on  crag:  but, 
before  attacking  it,  we  need  to  know  what  the  lines  of 
motion  are, — first,  in  a  subsiding  table-spoonful  of  honey ; 
secondly,  in  an  uprearing  Atlantic  wave  ;  and,  thirdly,  in 
the  pulsatory  festoons  of  a  descending  cataract,  obtained 
by  the  relaxation  of  its  mass,  while  the  same  pulsatory 
action  is  displayed,  as  unaccountably,  by  a  glacier  cata- 
ract,* in  the  compression  of  its  mass. 

*  Or  a  stick  of  sealing-wax.  Warm  one  at  the  fire  slowly  through ; 
and  bend  it  into  the  form  of  a  horseshoe.  You  will  then  see,  through 


VI.    OF   BUTTER   AND    HONEY.  83 X 

And,  on  applying  to  learned  men  in  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge *  for  elucidation  of  these  modes  of  motion,  I  find 
that,  while  they  can  tell  me  everything  I  don't  want  to 
know,  about  the  collision  and  destruction  of  planets,  they 
are  not  entirely  clear  on  the  subject  either  of  the  diffusion 
of  a  drop  of  honey  from  its  comb,  or  the  confusion  of  a 
rivulet  among  its  cresses.  Of  which  difficult  matters,  I 
will  therefore  reserve  inquiry  to  another  chapter ;  antici- 
pating, however,  its  conclusions,  for  the  reader's  better 
convenience,  by  the  brief  statement,  that  glacier  ice  has 
no  power  of  springing  whatever ; — that  it  cannot  descend 
into  a  rock-hollow,  and  sweep  out  the  bottom  of  it,  as  a 
cascade  or  a  wave  can ;  but  must  always  sluggishly  fill  it 
to  the  brim  before  flowing  over ;  and  accumulate,  beneath, 
under  dead  ice,  quiet  as  the  depths  of  a  mountain  tarn, 
the  fallen  ruins  of  its  colossal  shore. 


a  lens  of  moderate  power,  the  most  exquisite  facsimiles  of  glacier 
fissure  produced  by  extension,  on  its  convex  surface,  and  as  faithful 
image  of  glacier  surge  produced  by  compression,  on  its  concave  one. 

In  the  course  of  such  extension,  the  substance  of  the  ice  is  actually 
expanded,  (see  above,  Chap.  IV.,  §  7,)  by  the  widening  of  every  minute 
fissure ;  and  in  the  course  of  such  compression,  reduced  to  apparently 
solid  ice,  by  their  closing.  The  experiments  both  of  Forbes  and  Agassiz 
appear  to  indicate  that  the  original  fissures  are  never  wholly  effaced  by 
compression ;  but  I  do  not  myself  know  how  far  the  supposed  result  of 
these  experiments  may  be  consistent  with  ascertained  phenomena  of 
regelation. 

*  I  have  received  opportune  and  kind  help,  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  waves,  in  a  study  of  them  by  my  friend  Professor  Rood. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE   IRIS    OF    THE   EARTH. 


Lecture  given  at  the  London  Institution,  February  \:\in 
and  March  %%th,  1876,*  —  the  subject  announced  being, 

"AND    THE     GOLD    OF     THAT    LAND   IS     GOOD:     THERE    IS 


1.  THE  subject  which  you  permit  me  the  pleasure  of 
illustrating  to  you  this  evening,  namely,  the  symbolic  use  of 
the  colours  of  precious  stones  in  heraldry,  will,  I  trust,  not 
interest  you  less  because  forming  part  both  of  the  course 
of  education  in  art  which  I  have  been  permitted  to  found 
in  Oxford  ;  and  of  that  in  physical  science,  which  I  am 
about  to  introduce  in  the  Musuem  for  working  men  at 
Sheffield. 

I  say '  to  introduce,'  not  as  having  anything  novel  to 
teach,  or  show ;  for  in  the  present  day  I  think  novelty  the 
worst  enemy  of  knowledge,  and  my  introductions  are  only 
of  things  forgotten.  And  1  am  compelled  to  be  pertina- 

*  The  abrupt  interpolation  of  this  lecture  in  the  text  of  Deucalion  ia 
explained  in  the  next  chapter. 


VH.    THE    IRIS    OF   THE    EARTH.  85  ^ 

ciously — it  might  even  seem,  insolently,  separate  in  effort 
from  many  who  would  help  me,  just  because  I  am  resolved 
that  no  pupil  of  mine  shall  see  anything,  or  learn,  but 
what  the  consent  of  the  past  has  admitted  to  be  beautiful, 
aud  the  experience  of  the  past  has  ascertained  to  be  true. 
During  the  many  thousand  years  of  this  world's  existence 
the  persons  living  upon  it  have  produced  more  lovely 
things  than  any  of  us  can  ever  see  ;  and  have  ascertained 
more  profitable  things  than  any  of  us  can  ever  know.  Of 
these  infinitely  existing,  beautiful  things,  I  show  to  my 
pupils  as  many  as  they  can  thoroughly  see, — not  more ; 
and  of  the  natural  facts  which  are  positively  known,  I 
urge  them  to  know  as  many  as  they  can  thoroughly  know, 
— not  more  ;  and  absolutely  forbid  all  debate  whatsoever. 
The  time  for  debate  is  when  we  have  become  masters — 
not  while  we  are  students.  And  the  wisest  of  masters  are 
those  who  debate  least. 

2.  For  my  own  part — holding  myself  nothing  better 
than  an  advanced  student,  guiding  younger  ones, — I  never 
waste  a  moment  of  life  in  dispute,  or  discussion.  It  is  at 
least  ten  years  since  I  ceased  to  speak  of  anything  but 
what  I  had  ascertained ;  and  thus  becoming,  as  far  as  I 
know,  the  most  practical  and  positive  of  men,  left  dis- 
course of  things  doubtful  to  those  whose  pleasure  is  in 
quarrel ; — content,  for  my  pupils  and  myself,  to  range  all 
matters  under  the  broad  head  of  things  certain,  with  which 
we  are  vitally  concerned,  and  things  uncertain,  which 
don't  in  the  least  matter 


DEUCALION. 

3.  In  the  working  men's  museum  at  Sheffield,  then,  I 
mean  to  place  illustrations  of  entirely  fine  metal-work, 
including  niello  and  engraving;    and  of  the  stones,  and 
the  Flora  and  Fauna,  of  Yorkshire,  Derbyshire,  Durham, 
and  Westmoreland ;  *  together  with  such  foreign  exam- 
ples as  may  help  to  the  better  understanding  of  what  we 
have  at  home.     But  in  teaching  metal-work,  I  am  obliged 
to  exhibit,  not  the  uses  of  iron  and  steel  only,  but  those 
also  of  the  most  precious  metals,  and  their  history  ;    and 
for  the  understanding  of  any  sort  of  stones,  1  must  admit 
precious  stones,  and  their  history.     The  first  elements  of 
both  these  subjects,  I  hope  it  may  not  be  uninteresting  to 
you  to  follow  out  with  me  this  evening. 

4.  I  have  here,  in  my  right  hand,  a  little  round  thing, 
and  in  my  left  a  little  flat  one,  about  which,  and  the  like 
of  them,  it  is  my  first  business  to  explain,  in  Sheffield, 
what  may  positively  be  known.     They   have  long  been 
both,  to  me,  subjects  of  extreme  interest ;  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  I  know  more  about  them  than  most 
people :    but  that,  having  learned  what  1  can,  the  happy 
feeling  of  wonder  is  always   increasing  upon  me — how 
little   that  is  !     What  an  utter   mystery   both    the  little 
things  still  are ! 

5.  This  first — in  my   right   hand — is  what  we  call   a 
(  pebble,'  f  or  rolled  flint,  presumably  out  of  Kensington 


*  Properly,  Westmoreland,  the  district  of  Western  Meres, 
f  i.  A.  I.  Sheffield  Museum  ;  see  Chapter  VIII. 


VH.    THE    IRIS    OF   THE    EARTH.  87 

gravel-pits.  I  picked  it  up  in  the  Park, — the  first  that  lay 
loose,  inside  the  railings,  at  the  little  gate  entering  from 
Norfolk  Street.  I  shall  send  it  to  Sheffield;  knowing  that 
like  the  bit  of  lead  picked  up  by  Saadi  in  the  '  Arabian 
Nights,'  it  will  make  the  fortune  of  Sheffield,  scientifically, 
— if  Sheffield  makes  the  most  of  it,  and  thoroughly  learns 
what  it  is. 

6.  What  it  is,  I  say, — you  observe ; — not  merely,  what 
it  is  made  of.     Anybody — the  pitif ullest  apothecary  round 
the   corner,  with  a  beggarly  account  of  empty  boxes — 
can  tell  you  that.     It  is  made  of  brown  stuff  called  silicon, 
and  oxygen,  and  a  little  iron  ;  and  so  any  apothecary  can 
tell  what  you  all  who  are  sitting  there  are  made  of  : — you, 
and  I,  and  all  of  us,  are  made  of  carbon,  nitrogen,  lime, 
and  phosphorus,  and  seventy  per  cent,  or  rather  more  of 
water ;  but   then,   that  doesn't   tell    us   what    we   are, — 
what  a  child  is,  or  what  a  boy  is, — much  less  what  a  man 
is, — least  of  all,  what  supremely  inexplicable  woman  is. 
And  so,  in  knowing  only  what  it  is  made  of,  we  don't 
know  what  a  flint  is. 

7.  To  know  what  it  is,  we  must  know  what  it  can  do, 
and  suffer. 

That  it  can  strike  steel  into  white-hot  fire,  but  can  it- 
self be  melted  down  like  water,  if  mixed  with  ashes  ;  that 
it  is  subject  to  laws  of  form  one  jot  of  which  it  cannot 
violate,  and  yet  which  it  can  continually  evade,  and  ap- 
parently disobey ;  that  in  the  fulfilment  of  these  it  be- 
comes pure, — in  rebellion  against  them,  foul  and  base ; 


88  DEUCALION. 

that  it  is  appointed  on  our  island  coast  to  endure  for 
countless  ages,  fortifying  the  sea  cliff;  and  on  the  brow 
of  that  very  cliff,  evert  spring,  to  be  dissolved,  that  the 
green  blades  of  corn  may  drink  it  with  the  dew ; — that 
in  its  noblest  forms  it  is  still  imperfect,  and  in  the  mean- 
est, still  honourable, — this,  if  we  have  rightly  learned,  we 
begin  to  know  what  a  flint  is. 

8.  And  of  this  other  thing,  in  my  left  hand, — this  flat 
bit  of  yellow  mineral  matter, — commonly  called  a  c  sov- 
ereign,' not  indeed  to  be  picked  up  so  easily  as  the  other 
— (though    often,    by    rogues,   with    small   pains ;) — yet 
familiar  enough  to  the  sight  of  most  of  us,  and  too  fami- 
liar to  our  thought, — there  perhaps  are  the  like  inquiries 
to   be   put.     What  is  it  ?      What  can   it   do ;    and  for 
whom  ?     This   shape  given   to   it   by  men,  bearing   the 
image  of  a  Caesar ; — how  far  does  this  make  it  a  thing 
which  is  Caesar's  ?  the  opposed  image  of  a  saint,  riding 
against  a  dragon — how  far  does  this  make  it  a  thing  which 
is  of  Saints  ?     Is  its  testimony  true,  or  conceivably  true, 
on  either  side  ?     Are  there  yet  Caesars  ruling  us,  or  saints 
saving  us,  to  whom  it  does  of  right  belong  ? 

9.  And  the  substance  of  it, — not  separable,  this,  into 
others,  but  a  pure  element, — what  laws  are  over  it,  other 
than  Caesar's  ;  what  forms  must  it  take,  of  its  own,  in 
eternal  obedience  to   invisible   power,  if  it   escape  our 
human  hammer-stroke  ?     How  far,  in  its  own  shape,  or  in 
this,  is  it  itself  a  Caesar ;  inevitable  in  authority ;  secure 
of  loyalty,  loveable,  and  meritorious  of  love  ?     For,  read- 


VH.    THE   IRIS   OF    THE   EARTH.  89- 

ing  its  past  history,  we  find  it  has  been  much  beloved, 
righteously  or  iniquitously, — a  thing  to  be  known  the 
grounds  of,  surely  ? 

10.  Nay,  also  of  this  dark  and  despised  thing  in  iny 
right  hand,  we  must  ask  that  higher  question,  has  it  ever 
been  beloved  ?     And  finding  in  its  past  history  that  in  its 
pure  and  loyal  forms,  of  amethyst,  opal,  crystal,  jasper, 
and  onyx,  it  also  has  been  much  beloved  of  men,  shall  we 
not  ask  farther   whether  it   deserves    to   be   beloved, — 
whether  in  wisdom  or  folly,  equity  or  inequity,  we  give 
our  affections  to  glittering  shapes  of  clay,  and  found  our 
fortunes  on  fortitudes  of  stone ;  and  carry  down  from  lip 
to  lip,  and  teach,  the  father  to  the  child,  as  a  sacred  tra- 
dition, that  the  Power  which  made  us,  and  preserves,  gave 
also  with  the  leaves  of  the  earth  for  our  food,  and  the 
streams  of  the  earth  for  our  thirst,  so  also  the  dust  of  the 
earth  for  our  delight  and  possession  :  bidding  the  first  of 
the  Rivers  of  Paradise  roll  stainless  waves  over  radiant 
sands,  and  writing,  by  the  word   of  the   Spirit,  of  the 
Hocks  that  it  divided,  "  The  gold  of  that  land  is  good ; 
there  also  is  the  crystal,  and  the  onyx  stone." 

11.  Before  I  go  on,  1  must  justify  to  you  the  familiar 
word  I  have  used  for  the  rare  one  in  the  text.  • 

If  with  mere  curiosity,  or  ambitious  scholarship,  you 
were  to  read  the  commentators  on  the  Pentateuch,  you 
might  spend,  literally,  many  years  of  life,  on  the  discus-  "" 
sions  as  to  the  kinds  of  the  gems  named  in  it ;  and  be  no 
wiser  at  the  end  than  you  were  at  the  beginning.     But  if, 


90  DEUCALION. 

honestly  and  earnestly  desiring  to  know  the  meaning  of 
the  book  itself,  you  set  yourself  to  read  with  such  ordi- 
nary help  as  a  good  concordance  and  dictionary,  and  with 
fair  knowledge  of  the  two  languages  in  which  the  Testa- 
ments have  been  clearly  given  to  us,  you  may  find  out  all 
you  need  know,  in  an  hour. 

12.  The  word  '  bdellium  '  occurs  only  twice  in  the  Old 
Testament :  here,  and  in  the  book  of  Numbers,  where  you 
are  told  the  manna  was  of  the  colour  or  look  of  bdellium. 
There,  the  Septuagint  uses  for  it  the  word  /cpvaraXXos, 
crystal,  or  more  properly  anything  congealed  by  cold  ; 
and  in  the  other  account  of  the  manna,  in  Exodus,  you 
are  told  that,  after  the  dew  round  the  camp  was  gone  up, 
"  there  lay  a  small  round  thing — as  small  as  the  hoar- 
frost upon  the  ground."  Until  1  heard  from  my  friend 
Mr.  Tyrrwhitt  *  of  the  cold  felt  at  night  in  camping  on 
Sinai,  I  could  not  understand  how  deep  the  feeling  of  the 
Arab,  no  less  than  the  Greek,  must  have  been  respecting 
the  divine  gift  of  the  dew, — nor  with  what  sense  of  thank- 
fulness for  miraculous  blessing  the  question  of  Job  would 
be  uttered,  "  The  hoary  frost  of  heaven,  who  hath  gen- 
dered it  ?  "  Then  compare  the  first  words  of  the  blessing 
of  Isaac  :  "  God  give  thee  of  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  of 

*  See  some  admirable  sketches  of  travelling  in  the  Peninsula  of 
Sinai,  by  this  writer,  in  'Vacation  Tourists,'  Macmillan,  1864.  "I 
still  remember,"  he  adds  in  a  private  letter  to  me,  "  that  the  frozen 
towels  stood  on  their  edges  as  stiff  as  biscuits.  By  11  A.  M.  the  ther- 
mometer had  risen  to  85°,  and  was  still  rising." 


VH.   THE   IRIS   OF   THE   EARTH.  91 

the  fatness  of  earth ;  "  and,  again,  the  first  words  of  the 
song  of  Moses :  "  Give  ear,  oh  ye  heavens, — for  my  speech 
shall  distil  as  the  dew ;  "  and  you  will  see  at  once  why 
this  heavenly  food  was  made  to  shine  clear  in  the  desert, 
like  an  enduring  of  its  dew ; — Divine  remaining  for  con- 
tinual need.  Frozen,  as  the  Alpine  snow — pure  for 
ever. 

13.  Seize  firmly  that  first  idea  of  the  manna,  as  the 
type  of  the  bread  which  is  the  Word  of  God ;  *  and  then 
look  on  for  the  English  word  '  crystal '  in  Job,  of  Wisdom, 
"  It  cannot  be  valued  with  the  gold  of  Ophir,  with  the 
precious  onyx,  or  the  sapphire :  the  gold  and  the  crystal 
shall  not  equal  it,  neither  shall  it  be  valued  with  pure 
gold  ;  "  in  Ezekiel,  "  firmament  of  the  terrible  crystal,"  or 
in  the  Apocalypse,  "  A  sea  of  glass,  like  unto  crystal, — • 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal " — "  light  of  the  city  like  a 
stone  most  precious,  even  like  a  jasper  stone,  clear  as 
crystal."     Your  understanding  the  true  meaning  of  all 
these  passages  depends  on  your  distinct  conception  of  the 
permanent  clearness  and  hardness  of  the  Hock-crystal. 
You  may  trust  me  to  tell  you  quickly,  in  this  matter, 
what  you  may  all  for  yourselves  discover  if  you  will  read. 

14.  The    three   substances   named    here   in   the  first 
account  of  Paradise,  stand  generally  as  types — the  GOLD 

*  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  in  his  translation  of  the  Uprov  ofyoyov  of  the 
105th  Psalm,  completes  the  entire  range  of  idea, 

"  Himself,  from  skies,  their  hunger  to  repel, 
Candies  the  grasse  with  sweete  congealed  dew.*1 


92  DEUCALION. 

of  all  precious  metals ;  the  CRYSTAL  of  all  clear  precious 
stones  prized  for  lustre  /  the  ONYX  of  all  opaque  precious 
stones  prized  for  colotir.  And  to  mark  this  distinction  as 
a  vital  one, — in  each  case  when  the  stones  to  be  set  for 
the  tabernacle-service  are  named,  the  onyx  is  named 
separately.  The  Jewish  rulers  brought  "  onyx  stones,  and 
stones  to  be  set  for  the  ephod,  and  for  the  breastplate."* 
And  the  onyx  is  used  thrice,  while  every  other  stone  is 
used  only  once,  in  the  High  Priest's  robe ;  two  onyxes  on 
the  shoulders,  bearing  the  twelve  names  of  the  tribes,  six 
on  each  stone,  (Exod.  xxviii.  9,  10,)  and  one  in  the  breast- 
plate, with  its  separate  name  of  one  tribe,  (Exod.  xxviii. 
20.) 

15.  A.  Now  note  the  importance  of  this  grouping.  The 
Gold,  or  precious  metal,  is  significant  of  all  that  the 
power  of  the  beautiful  earth,  gold,  and  of  the  strong 
earth,  iron,  has  done  for  and  against  man.  How  much 
evil  I  need  not  say.  How  much  good  is  a  question  I  will 
endeavour  to  show  some  evidence  on  forthwith. 

B/\The  Crystal  is  significant  of  all  the  power  that 
jewels,  from  diamonds  down  through  every  Indian  gem  to 
the  glass  beads  which  we  now  make  for  ball-dresses,  have 
had  over  the  imagination  and  economy  of  men  and 
women — from  the  day  that  Adam  drank  of  the  water  of 
the  crystal  river  to  this  hour. 


*  Exod.  xxv.  7,  xxxv.  27,  comparing  Job  above  quoted,  and  Ezekiel 
xxviii.  13. 


VII.   THE   IBIS   OF   THE   EAETH.  93 

How  much  evil  that  is,  you  partially  know ;  how  much 
good,  we  have  to  consider. 

c.  The  Onyx  is  the  type  of  all  stones  arranged  in  bands 
of  different  colours ;  it  means  primarily,  nail-stone — 
showing  a  separation  like  the  white  half-crescent  at  the 
root  of:  the  finger-nail ;  not  without  some  idea  of  its  sub- 
jection to  laws  of  life.  Of  these  stones,  part,  which  are 
flinty,  are  the  material  used  for  cameos  and  all  manner  of 
engraved  work  and  pietra  dura ;  but  in  the  great  idea  of 
banded  or  belted  stones,  they  include  the  whole  range  of 
marble,  and  especially  alabaster,  giving  the  name  to  the 
alabastra,  or  vases  used  especially  for  the  containing  of 
precious  unguents,  themselves  more  precious  ;  *  so  that 
this  stone,  as  best  representative  of  all  others,  is  chosen  to 
be  the  last  gift  of  men  to  Christ,  as  gold  is  their  first ; 
incense  with  both  :  at  His  birth,  gold  and  frankincense ; 
at  His  death,  alabaster  and  spikenard. 

16.  The    two  sources   of  the   material   wealth   of   all 
nations  were  thus  offered  to  the  King  of  men  in  their  sim- 
plicity.    But   their  power   among   civilized   nations   has 
been  owing  to  their  workmanship.     And  if  we  are  to  ask 
whether  the  gold  and  the  stones  are  to  be  holy,  much 
more  have  we   to  ask  if  the  worker  in  gold,  and   the 
worker  in  stone,  are  to  be  conceived  as  exercising  holy 
function. 

17.  Now,  as  we  ask  of  a  stone,  to  know  what  it  is,  what 

*  Compare  the  "  Nardi  parvos  onyx,"  which  was  to  be  Virgil's  feast- 
gift,  in  spring,  to  Horace. 


94  DEUCALION. 

it  can  do,  or  suffer,  so  of  a  human  creature,  to  know  what 
it  is,  we  ask  what  it  can  do,  or  suffer. 

So  that  we  have  two  scientific  questions  put  to  us,  in 
this  matter  :  how  the  stones  came  to  be  what  they  are — 
or  the  law  of  Crystallization  ;  and  how  the  jewellers  came 
to  be  what  they  are — or  the  law  of  Inspiration.  You  see 
how  vital  this  question  is  to  me,  beginning  now  actually 
to  give  my  laws  of  Florentine  art  in  English  Schools! 
How  can  artists  be  made  artists, — in  gold  and  in  precious 
stones?  whether  in  the  desert,  or  the  city? — and  if  in  the 
city,  whether,  as  at  Jerusalem,  so  also  in  Florence,  Paris, 
or  London  ? 

Must  we  at  this  present  time,  think  you,  order  the 
jewellers,  whom  we  wish  to  teach,  merely  to  study  and 
copy  the  best  results  of  past  fashion  ?  or  are  we  to  hope 
that  some  day  or  other,  if  we  behave  rightly,  and  take 
care  of  our  jewels  properly,  we  shall  be  shown  also  how 
to  set  them  ;  and  that,  merely  substituting  modern  names 
for  ancient  ones,  some  divine  message  will  come  to  our 
craftsmen,  such  as  this :  '  See,  I  have  called  by  name 
Messrs.  Hunt  and  Roskell,  and  Messrs.  London  and 
Ryder,  and  I  have  filled  them  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  in 
wisdom  and  in  understanding,  and  in  all  manner  of  work- 
manship, to  work  in  gold,  and  in  silver,  and  in  brass,  and 
in  cutting  of  stones,'  ? 

18.  This  sentence,  which,  I  suppose,  becomes  startling 
to  your  ear  in  the  substitution  of  modern  for  ancient 
names,  is  the  first,  so  far  as  I  know,  distinctly  referring 


VII.    THE    IBIS    OF    THE   EAKTH.  95 

to  the  ancient  methods  of  instruction  in  the  art  of  jewel 
lery.  So  also  the  words  which  I  have  chosen  for  the  title 
(or,  as  perhaps  some  of  my  audience  may  regretfully  think 
it  should  be  called,  the  text,)  of  my  lecture,  are  the  first  I 
know  that  give  any  account  of  the  formation  or  existence 
of  jewels.  So  that  the  same  tradition,  whatever  its  value, 
which  gave  us  the  commands  we  profess  to  obey  for  our 
moral  law,  implies  also  the  necessity  of  inspired  instruc- 
tion for  the  proper  practice  of  the  art  of  jewellery  ;  and 
connects  the  richness  of  the  earth  in  gold  and  jewels  with 
the  pleasure  of  Heaven  that  we  should  use  them  under 
its  direction.  The  scientific  mind  will  of  course  draw 
back  in  scorn  from  the  idea  of  such  possibility  ;  but  then, 
the  scientific  mind  can  neither  design,  itself,  nor  perceive 
the  power  of  design  in  others.  And  practically  you  will 
find  that  all  noble  design  in  jewellery  whatsoever,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world  till  now,  has  been  either  in- 
stinctive,— done,  that  is  to  say,  by  tutorship  of  nature,  with 
the  innocent  felicity  and  security  of  purely  animal  art, — 
Etruscan,  Irish,  Indian,  or  Peruvian  gold  being  interwoven 
with  a  fine  and  unerring  grace  of  industry,  like  the  touch 
of  the  bee  on  its  cell  and  of  the  bird  on  her  nest, — or  else, 
has  been  wrought  into  its  finer  forms,  under  the  impulse 
of  religion  in  sacred  service,  in  crosier,  chalice,  and  lamp ; 
and  that  the  best  beauty  of  its  profane  service  has  been 
debased  from  these.  And  the  three  greatest  masters  of 
design  in  jewellery,  the  *  facile  principes'  of  the  entire 
European  School,  are — centrally,  the  one  who  definitely 


96  DEUCALION. 

worked  always  with  appeal  for  inspiration — Angelico  of 
F^sole ;  and  on  each  side  of  him,  the  two  most  earnest 
reformers  of  the  morals  of  the  Christian  Church — Holbein, 
and  Sandro  Botticelli. 

19.  I  have  first  answered  this,  the  most  close  home  of 
the  questions, — how  men  come  to  be  jewellers.     Next,  how 
do  stones  come  to  be  jewels  ?     It  seems  that  by  all  relig- 
ious, no  less  than  all  profane,  teaching  or  tradition,  these 
substances  are  asserted  to  be  precious, — useful  to  man,  and 
sacred  to  God.     Whether  we  have  not  made  them  deadly 
instead  of  useful, — and  sacrificed  them  to  devils  instead 
of  God, — you  may  consider  at  another  time.     To-night,  I 
would  examine  only  a  little  way  the  methods  in  which 
they  are  prepared  by  nature,  for  such  service  as  they  are 
capable  of. 

20.  There  are  three  great  laws  by  which  they,  and  the 
metals  they  are  to  be  set  in,  are  prepared  for  us ;  and  at 
present  all  these  are  mysteries  to  us. 

I.  The  first,  the  mystery  by  which  "  surely  there"  is  a 
vein  for  the  silver,  and  a  place  for  the  gold  whence  *  they 
fine  it."  No  geologist,  no  scientific  person  whatsoever, 
can  tell  you  how  this  gold  under  my  hand  was  brought 
into  this  cleft  in  the  bdellium  ;  f  no  one  knows  where  it 
was  before,  or  how  it  got  here  :  one  thing  only  seems  to 
be  manifest — that  it  was  not  here  always.  This  white 

*  *  Whence,'  not  '  where,'  they  sift  or  wash  it :  odev  StTjflemu,  LXX. 
f  20.  A.  1.  Sheffield  Museum. 


VII.    THE    IRIS   OF   THE   EARTH.  97 

bdellium  itself  closes  rents,  and  fills  hollows,  in  rocks 
which  had  to  be  rent  before  they  could  be  rejoined,  and 
hollowed  before  they  could  be  refilled.  Bat  no  one  hith- 
erto has  been  able  to  say  where  the  gold  first  was,  or  by 
what  process  it  came  into  this  its  resting-place.  First 
mystery,  then, — that  there  is  a  vein  for  the  silver,  and  a 
place  for  the  gold. 

II.  The  second  mystery  is  that  of  crystallization ;  by 
which,  obeying  laws  no  less  arbitrary  than  those  by  which 
the  bee  builds  her  cell — the  water  produced  by  the  sweet 
miracles  of  cloud  and  spring  freezes  into  the  hexagonal 
stars  of  the  hoar-frost ; — the  flint,  which  can  be  melted 
and  diffused  like  water,  freezes  also,  like  water,  into  these 
hexagonal  towers  of  everlasting  ice ;  *  and  the  clay,  which 
can  be  dashed  on  the  potter's  wheel  as  it  pleaseth  the  pot- 
ter to  make  it,  can  be  frozen  by  the  touch  of  Heaven  into 
the  hexagonal  star  of  Heaven's  own  colour — the  sapphire. 

III.  The  third  mystery,  the  gathering  of  crystals  them- 
selves into  ranks  or  bands,  by  which  Scotch  pebbles  are 
made,  not  only  is  at  present  unpierced,  but — which  is  a 
wonderful  thing  in  the  present  century — it  is  even   tin- 
talked  about.     There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  the 
nature  of  metallic  veins ;  and   books  have  been  written 
with  indefatigable  industry,  and  splendid  accumulation 
of  facts,  on  the  limits,  though  never  on  the  methods,  of 
crystallization.     But  of  the  structure  of  banded  stones  not 

*I  Q.  11.  Sheffield  Museum. 


98  DEUCALION. 

a  word  is  ever  said,  and,  popularly,  less  than  nothing 
known ;  there  being  many  very  false  notions  current  re- 
specting them,  in  the  minds  even  of  good  mineralogists. 

And  the  basis  of  what  I  find  to  be  ascertainable  about 
them,  may  be  told  with  small  stress  to  your  patience. 

21.  I  have  here  in  my  hand,*  a  pebble  which  used  to 
decorate  the  chimney-piece  of  the  children's  playroom  in 
my  aunt's  house  at  Perth,  when  I  wTas  seven  years  old, 
just  half  a  century  ago ;  which  pebble  having  come  out 
of  the  hill  of  Kinnoull,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tay,  I 
show  you  because  I  know  so  well  where  it  came  from,  and 
can  therefore  answer  for  its  originality  and  genuineness. 

22.  The  hill   of   Kinnoull,   like   all   the   characteristic 
crags  or  craigs  of  central  Scotland,  is  of  a  basaltic  lava— 
in  which,  however,  more   specially  than  in    most  others, 
these  balls  of  pebble  form  themselves.     And  of  these,  in 
their   first   and   simplest   state,   you   may  think  as  little 
pieces  of  flint  jelly,  filling  the  pores  or  cavities  of  the 
rock. 

Without  insisting  too  strictly  on  the  analogy — for  Nature 
is  so  various  in  her  operations  that  you  are  sure  to  be  de- 
ceived if  you  ever  think  one  process  has  been  in  all  respects 
like  another — you  may  yet  in  most  respects  think  of  the 
whole  substance  of  the  rock  as  a  kind  of  brown  bread, 
rolcanically  baked,  the  pores  and  cavities  of  which,  when 
it  has  risen,  are  filled  with  agate  or  onyx  jelly,  as  the  sim- 

*I.  A.  8.  Sheffield  Museum. 


Plate  III. 
MURAL  AGATES. 


(^NJVlfBSl' 


VH.    THE    IKIS    OF   THE   EAKTH.  99 

ilar  pores  of  a  slice  of  quartern  loaf  are  filled  with  butter, 
if  the  cook  has  spread  it  in  a  hurry. 

23.  I  use  this  simile  with  more  satisfaction,  because, 
in  the  course  of  last  autumn,  I  was  making  some  practical 
experiments  on  glacial  motion — the  substances  for  experi- 
ment being  supplied  to  me  in  any  degree  of  congelation 
or  regelation  which  might  be  required,  by  the  perfectly 
angelic  cook  of  a  country  friend,  who  not  only  gave  me 
the  run  of  her  kitchen,  but  allowed  me  to  make  domical 
mountains  of  her  best  dish-covers,  and  tortuous  valleys  of 
her  finest  napkins; — under  which  altogether  favourable 
conditions,  and  being  besides  supplied  with  any  quantity 
of  ice-cream  and  blancmange,  in  every  state  of  frost  and 
thaw,  I  got  more  beautiful  results,  both  respecting  glacier 
motion,  and  interstratified  rocks,  than  a  year's  work  would 
have  reached  by  unculinary  analysis.  Keeping,  however 
— as  I  must  to-night — to  our  present  question,  I  have  here 
a  piece  of  this  baked  volcanic  rock,  which  is  as  full  of 
agate  pebbles  as  a  plum-pudding  is  of  currants ;  each  of 
these  agate  pebbles  consisting  of  a  clear  green  chalcedony, 
with  balls  of  banded  agate  formed  in  the  midst,  or  at  the 
sides  of  them.  This  diagram  *  represents  one  enlarged. 

And  you  have  there  one  white  ball  of  agate,  floating 
apparently  in  the  green  pool,  and  a  larger  ball,  which  is 
cut  through  by  the  section  of  the  stone,  and  shows  you  the 
banded  structure  in  the  most  exquisite  precision. 

*  This  drawing  is  in  Sheffield  Museum. 


100  DEUCALION. 

24.  Now,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  possible  formation  of 
these  balls  in  melted  vitreous  substance  as  it  cools,  because 
we  get  them  in  glass  Itself,  when  gradually  cooled  in  old 
glass-houses ;  and  there  is  no  more  difficulty  in  accounting 
for  the  formation  of  round  agate  balls  of  this  character 
than  for  that  of  common  globular  chalcedony.     But  the 
difficulty  begins  when  the  jelly  is  not  allowed  to  remain 
quiet,  but  can  run  about  while  it  is  crystallizing.     Then 
you  get  glutinous  forms  that  choke  cavities  in  the  rock, 
in  which  the  chalcedony  slowly  runs  down  the  sides,  and 
forms  a  level  lake  at  the  bottom ;  and  sometimes  you  get 
the  whole  cavity  filled  with  lake  poured  over  lake,  the 
liquid  one  over  the  frozen,  floor  and  walls  at  last  encrusted 
with  onyx  fit  for  kings'  signets.* 

25.  Of  the  methods  of  engraving  this  stone,  and  of  its 
general  uses  and  values  in  ancient  and  modern  days,  you 
will  find  all  that  can  interest  you,  admirably  told  by  Mr. 
King,  in  his  book  on  precious  stones  and  gems,  to  which 
I  owe  most  of  the  little  I  know  myself  on  this  subject. 

To-night,  I  would  only  once  more  direct  your  attention 
to  that  special  use  of  it  in  the  dress  of  the  Jewish  High 
Priest;  that  while,  as  one  of  the  twelve  stones  of  the 
breastplate,  it  was  engraved  like  the  rest  with  the  name 
of  a  single  tribe,  two  larger  onyxes  were  used  for  the 
shoulder-studs  of  the  ephod ;  and  on  these,  the  names  of 


*  I  am  obliged  to  oxnit  here  the  part  of  the  lecture  referring  to  dia- 
grams.    It  will  be  given  in  greater  detail  in  the  subsequent  text. 


VII.    THE    IRIS    OF   THE    EARTH.  101 

all  the  twelve  tribes  were  engraved,  six  upon  each.  I  do 
not  infer  from  this  use  of  the  onyx,  however,  any  pre-emi- 
nence of  value,  or  isolation  of  symbolism,  in  the  stone ;  I 
suppose  it  to  have  been  set  apart  for  the  more  laborious 
piece  of  engraving,  simply  because  larger  surfaces  of  it 
were  attainable  than  of  true  gems,  and  its  substance  was 
more  easily  cut.  I  suppose  the  bearing  of  the  names  on 
the  shoulder  to  be  symbolical  of  the  priest's  sacrificial 
office  in  bearing  the  guilt  and  pain  of  the  people ;  while 
the  bearing  of  them  on  the  breast  was  symbolical  of  his 
pastoral  office  in  teaching  them :  but,  except  in  the  broad 
distinction  between  gem  and  onyx,  it  is  impossible  now 
to  state  with  any  certainty  the  nature  or  meaning  of  the 
stones,  confused  as  they  have  been  by  the  most  fantastic 
speculation  of  vain  Jewish  writers  themselves. 

There  is  no  such  difficulty  when  we  pass  to  the  inquiry 
as  to  the  use  of  these  stones  in  Christian  Heraldry,  on  the 
breastplate  and  shield  of  the  Knight;  for  that  use  is 
founded  on  natural  relations  of  colour,  which  cannot  be 
changed,  and  which  will  become  of  more  and  more  impor- 
tance to  mankind  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which 
Christian  Knighthood,  once  proudly  faithful  to  Death,  in 
War,  becomes  humbly  faithful  to  Life,  in  Peace. 

27.  To  these  natural  relations  of  colour,  the  human 
sight,  in  health,  is  joyfully  sensitive,  as  the  ear  is  to  the 
harmonies  of  sound ;  but  what  healthy  sight  is,  you  may 
well  suppose,  I  have  not  time  to  define  to-night ; — the 
nervous  power  of  the  eye,  and  its  delight  in  the  pure  hues 


102  DEUCALION. 

of  colour  presented  either  by  the  opal,  or  by  wild  flowers, 
being  dependent  on  the  perfect  purity  of  the  blood  sup- 
plied to  the  brain,  as  well  as  on  the  entire  soundness  of 
the  nervous  tissue  to  which  that  blood  is  supplied.  And 
how  much  is  required,  through  the  thoughts  and  conduct 
of  generations,  to  make  the  new  blood  of  our  race  of  chil- 
dren pure — it  is  for  your  physicians  to  tell  you,  when  they 
have  themselves  discovered  this  medicinal  truth,  that  the 
divine  laws  of  the  life  of  Men  cannot  be  learned  in  the 
pain  and  death  of  Brutes. 

28.  The  natural  and  unchangeable  system  of  visible 
colour  has  been  lately  confused,  in  the  minds  of  all  stu- 
dents, partly  by  the  pedantry  of  unnecessary  science ; 
partly  by  the  formalism  of  illiberal  art :  for  all  practical 
service,  it  may  be  stated  in  a  very  few  words,  and  ex- 
pressed in  a  very  simple  diagram. 

28.  There  are  three  primary  colours,  Red,  Blue,  and 
Yellow ;  three  secondary,  formed  by  the  union  of  any  two 
of  these  ;  and  one  tertiary,  formed  by  the  union  of  all  three. 

If  we  admitted,  as  separate  colours,  the  different  tints 
produced  by  varying  proportions  of  the  composing  tints, 
there  would  of  course  be  an  infinite  number  of  second- 
aries, and  a  wider  infinitude  of  tertiaries.  But  tints  can 
be  systematically  arranged  only  by  the  elements  of  them, 
not  the  proportions  of  those  elements.  Green  is  only 
green,  whether  there  be  less  or  more  of  blue  in  it;  purple 
only  purple,  whether  there  be  less  or  more  of  red  in  it ; 
scarlet  only  scarlet,  whether  there  be  less  or  more  of  yel- 


&* 


VII.    THE    IRIS    OF    THE    EARTH. 


103 


low  in  it ;  and  the  tertiary  gray  only  gray,  in  whatever 
proportions  the  three  primaries  are  combined  in  it. 

29.  The  diagram  used  in  my  drawing  schools  to  express 
the  system  of  these  colours  will  be  found  coloured  in 
the  '  Laws  of  Fesole  ' : — this  figure  will  serve  our  present 
purpose.* 


The  simple  trefoil  produced  by  segments  of  three  cir- 

*  Readers  interested  in  this  subject  are  sure  to  be  able  to  enlarge 
and  colour  it  for  themselves.  I  take  no  notice  of  the  new  scientific 
theories  of  primary  colour :  because  they  are  entirely  false  as  applied 
to  practical  work,  natural  or  artistic.  Golden  light  in  blue  sky  mak«»«i 
green  sky  ;  but  green  sky  and  red  clouds  can't  make  yellow  sky. 


104:  DEUCALION. 

cles  in  contact,  is  inscribed  in  a  curvilinear  equilateral 
triangle.  Nine  small  circles  are  set, — three  in  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  foils,  thi^ee  on  their  cusps,  three  in  the 
angles  of  the  triangle. 

The  circles  numbered  1  to  3  are  coloured  with  the 
primitive  colours ;  4  to  6,  with  the  secondaries ;  7  with 
white ;  8  with  black ;  and  the  9th,  with  the  tertiary, 
gray. 

30.  All  the  primary  and  secondary  colours  are  capable 
of  infinitely  various  degrees  of  intensity  or  depression  : 
they  pass  through  every  degree  of  increasing  light,  to  per- 
fect light,  or  white ;  and  of  increasing  shade,  to  perfect 
absence  of  light,  or  black.     And  these  are  essential  in  the 
harmony  required  by  sight ;  so  that  no  group  of  colours 
can  be  perfect  that  has  not  white  in  it,  nor  any  that  has 
not  black ;  or  else  the  abatement  or  modesty  of  them,  in 
the  tertiary,  gray.     So  that  these  three  form  the  limiting 
angles  of  the  field,  or  cloudy  ground  of  the  rainbow.     u  I 
do  set  my  bow  in  the  cloud." 

And  the  nine  colours  of  which  you  here  see  the  essen- 
tial group,  have,  as  you  know,  been  the  messenger  Iris  ; 
exponents  of  the  highest  purpose,  and  records  of  the  per- 
fect household  purity  and  honour  of  men,  from  the  days 
when  Hesiod  blazoned  the  shield  of  Heracles,  to  the  day 
when  the  fighting  Temeraire  led  the  line  at  Trafalgar, — 
the  Victory  following  her,  with  three  flags  nailed  to  her 
masts,  for  fear  one  should  be  shot  away. 

31.  The  names   of   these   colours   in  ordinary  shields 


VII.    THE   IRIS    OF   THE   EAETH. 

of  knighthood,  are  those  given  opposite,  in  the  left- 
hand  column.  The  names  given  them  in  blazoning  the 
shields  of  nobles,  are  those  of  the  correspondent  gems: 
of  heraldry  by  the  planets,  reserved  for  the  shields  of 
kings,  I  have  no  time  to  speak,  to-night,  except  incident- 
ally. 

A.  THE  PRIMARY   COLOURS. 

1.  Or.  Topaz. 

2.  Gules.  Kuby. 

3.  Azure.  Sapphire. 

B.    THE   SECONDARY   COLOURS. 

4.  Ecarlate.  Jasper. 

5.  Yert.  Emerald. 

6.  Purpure.  Hyacinth. 

C.     THE   TERTIARY   COLOURS. 

7.  Argent.  Carbuncle. 

8.  Sable.  Diamond. 

9.  Colombin.  Pearl. 

32.  I.  Or.  Stands  between  the  light  and  darkness ;  as 
the  sun,  who  "  rejoiceth  as  a  strong  man  to  run  his  course," 
between  the  morning  and  the  evening.  Its  heraldic  name, 
in  the  shields  of  kings,  is  Sol :  the  Sun,  or  Sun  of  Jus- 
tice ;  and  it  stands  for  the  strength  and  honour  of  all  men 
who  run  their  race  in  noble  work  ;  whose  path  "  is  as  the 
shining  light,  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  per- 

feet  day." 

y       5* 


106  DEUCALION. 

For  theirs  are  the  works  which  are  to  shine  before  men, 
that  they  may  glorify  our  Father.  And  they  are  also  to 
shine  before  God,  so  that  with  respect  to  them,  what  was 
written  of  St.  Bernard  may  be  always  true :  "  Opera 
sancti  patris  velut  Sol  in  conspectu  Dei." 

For  indeed  they  are  a  true  light  of  the  world,  infinitely 
more  good,  in  the  sight  of  its  Creator,  than  the  dead  flame 
of  its  sunshine  ;  and  the  discovery  of  modern  science,  that 
all  mortal  strength  is  from  the  sun,  which  has  thrown 
irrational  persons  into  stupid  atheism,  as  if  there  was  no 
God  but  the  sun,  is  indeed  the  accurate  physical  expression 
of  this  truth,  that  men,  rightly  active,  are  living  sunshine. 

II.  Gules,  (rose  colour,)  from  the  Persian  word '  gul,' 
for  the  rose.     It  is  the  exactly  central  hue  between  the 
dark  red,  and  pale  red,  or  wild-rose.     It  is  the  colour  of 
love,  the  fulfilment  of  the  joy  and  of  the  love  of  life  upon 
the  earth.     And  it  is  doubly  marked  for  this  symbol.   We 
saw  earlier,  how  the  vase  given  by  the  Madelaine  was  pre- 
cious in  its  material;  but  it  was  also  to  be  indicated  as 
precious  in  its  form.     It  is  not  only  the  substance,  but  the 
form  of  the  Greek  urn,  which  gives  it  nobleness  ;  and 
these  vases  for  precious  perfume  were  tall,  and  shaped  like 
the  bud  of  the  rose.     So  that  the  rose-bud  itself,  being  a 
vase  filled  with  perfume,  is  called  also  '  alabastron ' ;  and 
Pliny  uses  that  word  for  it  in  describing  the  growth  of 
the  rose. 

The  stone  of  it  is  the  Ruby. 

III.  Azure.     The  colour  of  the  blue  sky  in  the  height 


VII.    THE  IRIS   OF   THE    EAETH. 

of  it,  at  noon  ; — type  of  the  fulfilment  of  all  joy  and  love 
in  heaven,  as  the  rose-colour,  of  the  fulfilment  of  all  joy 
and  love  in  earth.  And  the  stone  of  this  is  the  Sapphire  ; 
and  because  the  loves  of  Earth  and  Heaven  are  in  truth 
one,  the  ruby  and  sapphire  are  indeed  the  same  stone  ; 
and  they  are  coloured  as  if  by  enchantment, — how,  or 
with  what,  no  chemist  has  yet  shown, — the  one  azure,  and 
the  other  rose. 

And  now  you  will  understand  why,  in  the  vision  of  the 
Lord  of  Life  to  the  Elders  of  Israel,  of  which  it  is  written, 
"  Also  they  saw  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink,"  you  are 
told,  "  Under  His  feet  was  a  plinth  of  sapphire,  and,  as  it 
were,  the  body  of  Heaven  in  its  clearness." 

IY.  Ucarlate  (scarlet).  I  use  the  French  word,  because 
all  other  heraldic  words  for  colours  are  Norman-French. 
The  ordinary  heraldic  term  here  is  £  tenne  '  (tawny) ;  for 
the  later  heralds  confused  scarlet  with  gules;  but  the 
colour  first  meant  was  the  sacred  hue  of  human  flesh — 
Carnation ; — incarnation  :  the  colour  of  the  body  of  man 
in  its  beauty  ;  of  the  maid's  scarlet  blush  in  noble  love ; 
of  the  youth's  scarlet  glow  in  noble  war ;  the  dye  of  the 
earth  into  which  heaven  has  breathed  its  spirit :  incarnate 
strength — incarnate  modesty. 

The  stone  of  it  is  the  Jasper,  which  as  we  shall  see,  is 
coloured  with  the  same  iron  that  colours  the  human  blood  ; 
and  thus  you  can  understand  why  on  the  throne,  in  the 
vision  of  the  returning  Christ,  "  He  that  sat  was  to  look 
upon  like  a  jasper  and  a  sardine  stone." 


1 08  DEUCALION. 

Y.  Vert,  (viridis,)  from  the  same  root  as  the  words 
'virtue'  and  'virgin,' — the  colour  of  the  green  rod  in 
budding  spring ;  the*  noble  life  of  youth,  born  in  the 
spirit, — as  the  scarlet  means,  the  life  of  noble  youth,  in 
flesh.*  It  is  seen  most  perfectly  in  clear  air  after  the 
sun  has  set, — the  blue  of  the  upper  sky  brightening  down 
into  it.  It  is  the  true  colour  of  the  eyes  of  Athena, — 
Athena  PXau/cw7rt9,t  looking  from  the  west. 

The  stone  of  it  is  the  Emerald  ;  and  I  must  stay  for  a 
moment  to  tell  you  the  derivation  of  that  word. 

Anciently,  it  did  not  mean  our  emerald,  but  a  massive 
green  marble,  veined  apparently  by  being  rent  asunder, 
and  called,  therefore,  the  Rent  or  Torn  Hock. 

Now,  in  the  central  war  of  Athena  with  the  Giants,  the 
sign  of  her  victory  was  that  the  earth  was  rent,  the  power 
of  it  torn,  and  the  graves  of  it  opened.  We  know  this  is 
written  for  the  sign  of  a  greater  victory  than  hers.  And 
the  word  which  Hesiod  uses — the  oldest  describer  of  this 
battle — is  twice  over  the  same  :  the  sea  roared,  the  heav- 
ens thundered,  the  earth  cried  out  in  being  rent, 

*  Therefore,  the  Spirit  of  Beatrice  is  dressed  in  green,  over  scarlet, 
(not  rose  ; — observe  this  specially). 

"  Sovra  candido  vel,  cinta  d'  oliva 
Donna  m'  apparve  sotto  verde  manto, 
Vestita  di  color  difiamma  viva." 

f  Accurately  described  by  Pausanias,  1,  xiv.,  as  of  the  colour  of  a 
green  lake,  from  the  Tritonian  pool ;  compare  again  the  eyes  of  Bea- 
trice. 


VH.    THE    IRIS   OF   THE   EARTH. 

From  that  word  yon  have  "  the  rent  rock," 
— in  Latin,  smaragdus ;  in  Latin  dialect,  smaraudus — • 
softened  into  emerandu,  emeraude,  emerald.  And  now 
yon  see  why  "  there  was  a  rainbow  round  about  the  throne 
in  sight  like  unto  an  emerald." 

VI.  Purpure.      The   true   purple  of    the   Tabernacle, 
"  blue,  purple,  and  scarlet " — the  kingly  colour,  retained 
afterwards  in   all   manuscripts   of   the  Greek   Gospels ; 
therefore  known  to  us  absolutely  by  its  constant  use  in 
illumination.     It  is  rose  colour  darkened  or  saddened  with 
blue  ;  the  colour  of  love  in  noble  or  divine  sorrow ;  borne 
by  the  kings,  whose  witness  is  in  heaven,  and  their  labour 
on  the  earth.     Its  stono  is  the  Jacinth,  Hyacinth,  or  Ame- 
thyst,— "  like  to  that  sable  flower  inscribed  with  woe." 

In  these  six  colours,  then,  you  have  the  rainbow,  or  an- 
gelic iris,  of  the  light  and  covenant  of  life. 

But  the  law  of  the  covenant  is,  "  I  do  set  my  bow  in 
the  cloud,  on  the  shadow  of  death — and  the  ordinance  of 
it." 

And  as  here,  central,  is  the  sun  in  his  strength,  so  in  the 
heraldry  of  our  faith,  the  morning  and  the  evening  are  the 
first  day, — and  the  last. 

VII.  Argent.     Silver,  or  snow-colour  ;  of  the  hoar-frost 
on  the  earth,  or  the  star  of  the  morning. 

I  was  long  hindered  from  understanding  the  entire 
group  of  heraldic  colours,  because  of  the  mistake  in  our 
use  of  the  word  i  carbuncle.'  It  is  not  the  garnet,  but  the 
same  stone  as  the  ruby  and  sapphire — only  crystallized 


110  DEUCALION. 

white,  instead  of  red  or  blue.  It  is  the  white  sapphire, 
showing  the  hexagonal  star  of  its  crystallization  perfect- 
ly ;  and  therefore  it  becomes  an  heraldic  bearing  as  a 
star. 

And  it  is  the  personal  bearing  of  that  Geoffrey  Planta- 
genet,  who  married  Maud  the  Empress,  and  became  the 
sire  of  the  lords  of  England,  in  her  glorious  time. 

VIII.  Sable,  (sable,  sabulum,)  the  colour  of  sand  of  the 
great  hour-glass  of  the  world,  outshaken.     Its  stone  is  the 
diamond — never  yet,  so  far  as  1   know,  found  but  in  the 
sand.*     It  is  the  symbol  at  once  of  dissolution,  and  of  en- 
durance :  darkness  changing  into  light — the  adamant  of 
the  grave. 

IX.  Gray.      (When    deep,   the   second    violet,   giving 
Dante's  full  chord  of  the  seven  colours.)     The  abatement 
of  the  light,  the  abatement  of  the  darkness.     Patience,  be- 
tween this  which  recedes  and  that  which  advances ;  the 
colour  of  the  turtle-dove,  with  the  message  that  the  waters 
are   abated;  the  colour  of  the  sacrifice  of  the   poor, — 
therefore  of  humility.     Its  stone  is  the  Pearl ;  in  Norman 
heraldry  the  Marguerite — the  lowest  on  the  shield,  yet  of 
great  price  ;  and   because,  through  this  virtue,  open  first 
the  gates  of  Paradise,  you  are  told  that  while  the  building 
of  the  walls  of  it  was  of  jasper,  every  several  gate  was  of 
one  pearl. 

33.  You  hear  me  tell  you  thus  positively, — and  without 

*  Or  in  rock  virtually  composed  of  it. 


VII.    THE   IRIS    OF   THE    EARTH. 


Ill 


qualification  or  hesitation, — what  these  things  mean.  But 
mind,  I  tell  you  so,  after  thirty  years'  work,  and  that  di- 
rected wholly  to  the  one  end  of  finding  out  the  truth, 
whether  it  was  pretty  or  ugly  to  look  in  face  of.  During 
which  labour  I  have  found  that  the  ultimate  truth,  the 
central  truth,  is  always  pretty  ;  but  there  is  a  superficial 
truth,  or  half-way  truth,  which  may  be  very  ugly ;  and 
which  the  earnest  and  faithful  worker  has  to  face  and 
fight,  and  pass  over  the  body  of, — feeling  it  to  be  his 
enemy  ;  but  which  a  careless  seeker  may  be  stopped  by, 
and  a  misbelieving  seeker  will  be  delighted  by,  and  stay 
with,  gladly. 

34.  When  I  first  gave  this  lecture,  you  will  find  the 
only  reports  of  it  in  the  papers,  with  which  any  pains  had 
been  taken,  were  endeavours  to  make  you  disbelieve  it, 
or  misbelieve  it, — that  is  to  say,  to  make  '  meseroyants '  or 
4  miscreants '  of  you. 

And  among  the  most  earnest  of  these,  was  a  really  in- 
dustrious essay  in  the  '  Daily  Telegraph,' — showing  evi- 
dence that  the  writer  had  perseveringly  gone  to  the  Her- 
alds' Office  and  British  Museum  to  read  for  the  occasion  ; 
and,  I  think,  deserving  of  serious  notice  because  we  really 
owe  to  the  proprietors  of  that  journal  (who  supplied  the 
most  earnest  of  our  recent  investigators  with  funds  for 
his  Assyrian  excavations)  the  most  important  heraldic 
discoveries  of  the  generations  of  Noah  and  Nimrod,  that 
have  been  made  since  printing  took  the  place  of  cuneiform 
inscription. 


112  DEUCALION. 

I  pay,  therefore,  so  much  respect  to  the  archseologians 
of  Fleet  Street  as  to  notice  the  results  of  their  suddenly 
stimulated  investigations  in  heraldry. 

35.  "  The  lecturer  appeared  to  have  forgotten,"  they 
said,  Ck  that  every  nation  had  its  own  code  of  symbols, 
and  that  gules,  or  red,  is  denominated  by  the  French 
heralds  gueules,  and  is  derived  by  the  best  French  phi- 
lologers  from  the  Latin  '  gula,'  the  gullet  of  a  beast  of 
prey." 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  best  French  philologists  do 
give  this  derivation  ;  but  it  is  also  unfortunately  true  that 
the  best  French  philologists  are  not  heralds  ;  and  what  is 
more,  and  worse,  all  modern  heraldry  whatsoever  is,  to 
the  old  science,  just  what  the  poor  gipsy  Hayraddin.  in 
f  Quentin  Durward,'  is  to  Toison  d'Or.  But,  so  far  from 
having  s  forgotten,'  as  the  writer  for  the  press  supposes  I 
had,  that  there  were  knights  of  France,  and  Yen  ice,  and 
Florence,  as  well  as  England,  it  so  happens  that  my  first 
studies  in  heraldry  were  in  this  manuscript,  which  is  the 
lesson-book  of  heraldry  written  for  the  young  Archduke 
Charles  of  Austria;  and  in  this  one,  which  is  a  psalter 
written  in  the  monastery  of  the  Saint  Chapelle  for  St. 
Louis,  King  of  France ;  and  on  the  upper  page  of  which, 
here  framed,*  you  will  see  written,  in  letters  of  gold,  the 
record  of  the  death  of  his  mother,  Blanche  of  Castile,  on 
the  27th  of  November,  next  after  St.  Genevieve's  day ; 

*  The  books  referred  to,  in  my  rooms  at  Oxford,  are  always  acces* 
ble  for  examination. 


VII.    THE   IRIS    OF   THE   EARTH.  11<T 

and  on  the  under  page,  between  the  last  lines  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  her  bearing,  the  Castilian  tower,  alter- 
nating with  the  king's, — Azure,  seme  de  France. 

36.  "With  this  and  other  such  surer  authority  than  was 
open  to  the  investigation  of  the  press- writer,  I  will  clear 
up  for  you  his  point  about  the  word  '  gules.'     But  I  must 
go  a  long  way  back  first.     I  do  not  know  if,  in  reading 
the  account  of  the  pitching  of  the  standards  of  the  princes 
of   Israel   round   the    Tabernacle,   you   have   ever  been 
brought  to  pause  by  the  singular  covering  given  to  the 
Tabernacle  itself, — rams'  skins    dyed   red,  and  badgers9 
skins.     Of  rams'  skins,  of  course,  any  quantity  could  be 
had  from  the  flocks,  but  of  badgers',  the  supply  must  have 
been  difficult! 

And  you  will  find,  on  looking  into  the  matter,  that  the 
so-called  badgers'  skins  were  indeed  those  which  young 
ladies  are  very  glad  to  dress  in  at  the  present  day, — seal- 
skins ;  and  that  the  meaning  of  their  use  in  the  Tabernacle 
was,  that  it  might  be  adorned  with  the  useful  service  of 
the  flocks  of  the  earth  and  sea:  the  multitude  of  the  seals 
then  in  the  Mediterranean  being  indicated  to  you  both  by 
the  name  and  coinage  of  the  city  Phocsea ;  and  by  the  at- 
tribution of  them,  to  the  God  Proteus,  in  the  first  book  of 
the  Odyssey,  under  the  precise  term  of  flocks,  to  be  counted 
by  him  as  their  shepherd. 

37.  From  the  days  of  Moses  and  of  Homer  to  our  own, 
the  traffic  in  these  precious  wools  and  furs,  in  the  Cash- 
mere wool,  and  the  fur,  after  the  seal  disappeared,  of  the 


114: 


DEUCALION. 


grey  ermine,  (becoming  white  in  the  Siberian  winter,)  has 
continued :  and  in  the  days  of  chivalry  became  of  im- 
mense importance ;  because  the  mantle,  and  the  collar 
fastening  close  about  the  neck,  were  at  once  the  most 
useful  and  the  most  splendid  piece  of  dress  of  the  warrior 
nations,  who  rode  and  slept  in  roughest  weather,  and  in 
open  field.  l!sow,  these  rams'  skins,  or  fleeces,  dyed  of 
precious  red,  were  continually  called  by  their  Eastern 
merchants  'the  red  things,'  from  the  Zoroastrian  word 
'gul,' — taking  the  place  of  the  scarlet  Chlamydes,  which 
were  among  the  richest  wealth  of  old  Rome.  The  Latin 
knights  could  only  render  the  eastern  word  '  gul '  by  gula ; 
and  so  in  St.  Bernard's  red-hot  denunciation  of  these 
proud  red  dresses,  he  numbers  chiefly  among  them  the 
little  red-dyed  skins, — pelliculas  rubricatas, — which  they 
call  gulee :  "  Quas  gulas  vocant.-'  These  red  furs,  for 
wrist  and  neck,  were  afterwards  supposed  by  bad  Latin- 
ists  to  be  called  i  guise,'  as  throat-pieces.  St.  Bernard 
specifies  them,  also,  in  that  oflice :  "  Even  some  of  the 
clergy,"  he  says,  "  have  the  red  skins  of  weasels  hanging 
from  their  necks — dependentes  a  collo  "  ;  this  vulgar  in- 
terpretation of  gula  became  more  commonly  accepted,  as 
intercourse  with  the  East,  and  chivalric  heraldry,  dimin- 
ished ;  and  the  modern  philologist  finally  jumps  fairly 
down  the  lion's  throat,  and  supposes  that  the  Tyrian  pur- 
ple, which  had  been  the  pride  of  all  the  Emperors  of  East 
and  West,  was  named  from  a  wild  beast's  gullet ! 

38.  I  do  not  hold  for  a  mischance,  or  even  for  a  chance 


VII.    THE   IBIS   OF   THE   EARTH.  115 

at  all,  that  this  particular  error  should  have  been  unearth- 
ed by  the  hasty  studies  of  the  Dail}7  Telegraph.  It  is  a 
mistake  entirely  characteristic  of  the  results  of  vulgar 
modern  analysis ;  and  I  have  exposed  it  in  detail,  that 
I  might  very  solemnly  warn  you  of  the  impossibility  of 
arriving  at  any  just  conclusions  respecting  ancient  classi- 
cal languages,  of  which  this  heraldry  is  among  the  noblest, 
unless  we  take  pains  first  to  render  ourselves  capable  of 
the  ideas  which  such  languages  convey.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  every  great  symbol,  as  it  has,  on  one  side,  a 
meaning  of  comfort,  has  on  the  other  one  of  terror;  and 
if  to  noble  persons  it  speaks  of  noble  things,  to  ignoble 
persons  it  will  as  necessarily  speak  of  ignoble  ones.  Not 
under  one  only,  but  under  all,  of  these  heraldic  symbols, 
as  there  is,  for  thoughtful  and  noble  persons,  the  spiritual 
sense,  so  for  thoughtless  and  sensual  persons,  there  is  the 
sensual  one  ;  and  can  be  no  other.  Every  word  has  only 
the  meaning  which  its  hearer  can  receive  ;  you  cannot  ex- 
press honour  to  the  shameless,  nor  love  to  the  unloving. 
Nay,  gradually  you  may  fall  to  the  level  of  having  words 
no  more,  either  for  honour  or  for  love  : 

"  There  are  whole  nations,"  says  Mr.  Farrar,  in  his  ex- 
cellent little  book  on  the  families  of  speech,  "  people 
whom  no  nation  now  acknowledges  as  its  kinsmen,  whose 
languages,  rich  in  words  for  all  that  can  be  eaten  or 
handled,  seem  absolutely  incapable  of  expressing  the  re- 
flex conceptions  of  the  intellect,  or  the  higher  forms  of  the 
consciousness ;  whose  life  seems  confined  to  a  gratifica- 


116  DEUCALION. 

tion  of  animal  wants,  with  no  hope  in  the  future,  and  no 
pride  in  the  past.  They  are  for  the  most  part  peoples 
without  a  literature,  and  without  a  history  ;  — peoples  whose 
tongues  in  some  instances  have  twenty  names  for  murder, 
but  no  name  for  love,  no  name  for  gratitude,  no  name  for 
God." 

39.  The  English  nation,  under  the  teaching  of  modern 
economists,  is  rapidly  becoming  one  of  this  kind,  which, 
deliberately  living,  not  in  love  of  God  or  man,  but  in  de- 
fiance of  God,  and  hatred  of  man,  will  no  longer  have  in 
its  heraldry,  gules  as  the  colour  of  love ;  but  gules  only  as 
the  colour  of  the  throat  of  a  wild  beast.  That  will  be  the 
only  part  of  the  British  lion  symbolized  by  the  British 
flag ; — not  the  lion  heart  any  more,  but  only  the  lion  gul- 
let. 

And  if  you  choose  to  interpret  your  heraldry  in  that 
modern  fashion,  there  are  volumes  of  instruction  open  for 
you  everywhere.  Yellow  shall  be  to  you  the  colour  of 
treachery,  instead  of  sunshine ;  green,  the  colour  of  putre- 
faction, instead  of  strength ;  blue,  the  colour  of  sulphur- 
ous hell-fire,  instead  of  sunlit  heaven ;  and  scarlet,  the 
colour  of  the  harlot  of  Babylon,  instead  of  the  Virgin  of 
God.  All  these  are  legitimate  readings, — nay,  inevitable 
readings.  I  said  wrongly  just  now  that  you  might  choose 
what  the  symbols  shall  be  to  you.  Even  if  you  would, 
you  cannot  choose.  They  can  only  reflect  to  you  what 
you  have  made  your  own  mind,  and  can  only  herald  to  you 
what  you  have  determined  for  your  own  fate. 


VH.    THE   IRIS    OF   THE   EARTH.  117 

40.  And  now,  with  safe  understanding  of  the  meaning  of 
purple,  I  can  show  you  the  purple  and  dove-colour  of  St. 
Mark's,  once  itself  a  sea-borne  vase  of  alabaster  full  of 
incense  of  prayers ;  and  a  purple  manuscript, — floor,  walls, 
and  roof  blazoned  with  the  scrolls  of  the  gospel. 

They  have  been  made  a  den  of  thieves,  and  these  stones 
of  Venice  here  in  my  hand  *  are  rags  of  the  sacred  robes 
of  her  Church,  sold,  and  mocked  like  her  Master.  They 
have  parted  her  garments,  and  cast  lots  upon  her  vesture. 

41.  I  return  to  our  question  at  the  beginning :   Are  we 
right  in  setting  our  hearts  on  these  stones, — loving  them, 
holding  them  precious  ? 

Yes,  assuredly ;  provided  it  is  the  stone  we  love,  and 
the  stone  we  think  precious ;  and  not  ourselves  we  love, 
and  ourselves  we  think  precious.  To  worship  a  black 
stone,  because  it  fell  from  heaven,  may  not  be  wholly 
wise,  but  it  is  half-way  to  being  wise  ;  half-way  to  worship 
of  heaven  itself.  Or,  to  worship  a  white  stone  because  it 
is  dug  with  difficulty  out  of  the  earth,  and  to  put  it  into 
a  log  of  wood,  and  say  the  wood  sees  with  it,  may  not  be 

*  Portions  of  the  alabaster  of  St.  Mark's  torn  away  for  recent  restor- 
ations. The  destruction  of  the  floor  of  the  church,  to  give  work  to 
modern  mosaic-mongers,  has  been  going  on  for  years.  I  cannot  bear 
the  pain  of  describing  the  facts  of  it,  and  must  leave  the  part  of  the 
lecture  referring  to  the  colour  of  the  marbles  to  be  given  farther  on, 
in  connection  with  some  extracts  from  my  '  Stones  of  Venice.'  The 
superb  drawing,  by  Mr.  Bunney,  of  the  north  portico,  which  illustrated 
them,  together  with  the  alabasters  themselves,  will  be  placed  in  the 
Sheffield  Museum. 


118  DEUCALION. 

wholly  wise ;  but  it  is  half-way  to  being  wise ;  half-way 
to  believing  that  the  God  who  makes  earth  so  bright,  may 
also  brighten  the  eyes  of  the  blind.  It  is  no  true  folly  to 
think  that  stones  see,  but  it  is,  to  think  that  eyes  do  not ; 
it  is  no  true  folly  to  think  that  stones  live,  but  it  is,  to 
think  that  souls  die ;  it  is  no  true  folly  to  believe  that,  in 
the  day  of  the  making  up  of  jewels,  the  palace  walls  shall 
be  compact  of  life  above  their  corner-stone, — but  it  is,  to 
believe  that  in  the  day  of  dissolution  the  souls  of  the 
globe  shall  be  shattered  with  its  emerald  ;  and  no  spirit 
survive,  unterrified,  above  the  ruin. 

42.  Yes,  pretty  ladies !  love  the  stones,  and  take  care 
of  them  ;  but  love  your  own  souls  better,  and  take  care  of 
them,  for  the  day  when  the  Master  shall  make  up  His 
jewels.  See  that  it  be  first  the  precious  stones  of  the  breast- 
plate of  justice  you  delight  in,  and  are  brave  in  ;  not  first 
the  stones,  of  your  own  diamond  necklaces  *  you  delight 
in,  and  are  fearful  for,  lest  perchance  the  lady's  maid  miss 
that  box  at  the  station.  Get  your  breastplate  of  truth 
first,  and  every  earthly  stone  will  shine  in  it. 

*  Do  you  think  there  was  no  meaning-  of  fate  in  that  omen  of  the 
diamond  necklace ;  at  the  end  of  the  days  of  queenly  pride  ; — omen  of 
another  line,  of  scarlet,  on  many  a  fair  neck  ?  It  was  a  foul  story,  you 
say — slander  of  the  innocent.  Yes,  undoubtedly,  fate  meant  it  to  be  so. 
Slander,  and  lying,  and  every  form  of  loathsome  shame,  cast  on  the 
innocently  fading  Royalty.  For  the  corruption  of  the  best  is  the  worst ; 
and  these  gems,  which  are  given  by  God  to  be  on  the  breast  of  the  pure 
priest,  and  in  the  crown  of  the  righteous  king,  sank  into  the  black  gravel 
of  diluvium,  under  streams  of  innocent  blood. 


UN' 

^£- 

VII.    THE   IEIS   OF   THE   EARTH.  119^ 

Alas !  most  of  you  know  no  more  what  justice  means, 
than  what  jewels  mean ;  but  here  is  the  pure  practice  of 
it  to  be  begun,  if  you  wrill,  to-morrow. 

43.  For  literal  truth  of  your  jewels  themselves,  abso- 
lutely search  out  and  cast  away  all  manner  of  false,  or 
dyed,  or  altered  stones.     And  at  present,  to  make  quite 
sure,  wear  your  jewels  uncut;  they  will  be  twenty  times 
more  interesting   to  you,  so.     The  ruby  in  the   British 
crown  is  uncut ;  and  is,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  extends, — 
I  have  not  had  it  to  look  at  close, — the  loveliest  precious 
stone   in   the   world.     And,  as  a  piece  of   true   gentle- 
woman's and  true  lady's  knowledge,  learn  to  know  theso 
stones  when  you  see  them,  uncut.     So  much  of  mineralogy 
the  abundance  of  modern  science  may,  I  think,  spare,  as  a 
piece  of  required  education  for  the  upper  classes. 

44.  Then,  when  you  know  them,  and  their  shapes,  get 
your  highest  artists  to  design  the  setting  of  them.     Hol- 
bein, Botticelli,  or  Angelico,  will   always    be   ready  to 
design  a  brooch  for  you.     Then  you  will  begin  to  think 
how  to  get  your  Holbein  and  Botticelli,  which  will  lead 
to  many  other  wholesome  thoughts. 

45.  And  lastly,  as  you  are  true  in  the  choosing,  be  just 
in  the  sharing,  of  your  jewels.     They  are  but  dross  and 
dust,  after  all ;  and  you,  my  sweet  religious  friends,  who 
are  so  anxious  to  impart  to  the  poor  your  pearls  of  great 
price,  may  surely  also  share  with  them  your  pearls  of  little 
price.     Strangely  (to  my  own  mind  at  least),  you  are  not 
so  zealous  in  distributing  your  estimable  rubies,  as  you 


120  DEUCALION. 

are  in  communicating  your  ^estimable  wisdom.  Of  the 
grace  of  God,  which  you  can  give  away  in  the  quantity 
you  think  others  are  in  need  of,  without  losing  any  your- 
selves, I  observe  you  to  be  affectionately  lavish ;  but 
of  the  jewels  of  God,  if  any  suggestions  be  made  by  char- 
ity touching  the  distribution  of  them^  you  are  apt,  in  your 
wisdom,  to  make  answer  like  the  wise  virgins,  "  Not  so, 
lest  there  be  not  enough  for  us  and  you." 

46.  Now,  my  fair  friends,  doubtless,  if  the  Tabernacle 
were  to  be  erected  again,  in  the  middle  of  the  Park,  you 
would  all  be  eager  to  stitch  camels'  hair  for  it ; — some,  to 
make  presents  of  sealskins  to  it ;  and,  perhaps,  not  a  few 
fetch  your  jewel-cases,  offering  their  contents  to  the  selec- 
tion of  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab. 

But  that  cannot  be,  now,  with  so  Crystal-Palace-like 
entertainment  to  you.  The  tabernacle  of  God  is  now 
with  men ; — in  men,  and  women,  and  sucklings  also ; 
which  temple  ye  are,  ye  and  your  Christian  sisters ; 
of  whom  the  poorest,  here  in  London,  are  a  very  undec- 
orated  shrine  indeed.  They  are  the  Tabernacle,  fair 
friends,  which  you  have  got  leave,  and  charge,  to  adorn. 
Not,  in  anywise,  those  charming  churches  and  altars 
which  you  wreathe  with  garlands  for  God's  sake,  and  the 
eloquent  clergyman's.  You  are  quite  wrong,  and  barbar- 
ous in  language,  when  you  call  them  i  Churches '  at  all. 
They  are  only  Synagogues  ; — the  very  same  of  which 
Christ  spoke,  with  eternal  meaning,  as  the  places  that 
hypocrites  would  love  to  be  seen  in.  Here,  in  St.  Giles's, 


VH.    THE    IRIS    OF    THE    EARTH.  121 

and  the  East,  sister  to  that  in  St.  George's,  and  the  West, 
is  the  Church  !  raggedly  enough  curtained,  surely  !  Let 
those  arches  and  pillars  of  Mr.  Scott's  alone,  young  ladies : 
it  is  you  whom  God  likes  to  see  well  decorated,  not  them. 
Keep  your  roses  for  your  hair — your  embroidery  for  your 
petticoats.  You  are  yourselves  the  Church,  dears ;  and 
see  that  you  be  finally  adorned,  as  women  professing  god- 
liness, with  the  precious  stones  of  good  works,  which  may 
be  quite  briefly  defined,  for  the  present,  as  decorating  the 
entire  Tabernacle ;  and  clothing  your  poor  sisters,  with 
yourselves.  Put  roses  also  in  their  hair,  put  precious 
stones  also  on  their  breasts ;  see  that  they  also  are  clothed 
in  your  purple  and  scarlet,  with  other  delights  ;  that  they 
also  learn  to  read  the  gilded  heraldry  of  the  sky ;  and, 
upon  the  earth,  be  taught,  not  only  the  labours  of  it,  but 
the  loveliness.  For  them,  also,  let  the  hereditary  jewel 
recall  their  father's  pride,  their  mother's  beauty  :  so  shall 
your  days,  and  theirs,  be  long  in  the  sweet  and  sacred 
land  which  the  Lord  your  God  has  given  you  :  so,  truly, 

Shall  THE  GOLD  OF  THAT  LAND  BE  GOOD,  AND  THERE,  ALSO, 
THE  CRYSTAL,  AND  THE  ONYX  STONE. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

THE    ALPHABET. 

(Chapter  written  to  introduce  the  preceding  Lecture  ;  but 
transposed,  that  the  Lecture  might  not  be  divided  be- 
tween two  numbers.) 

1.  SINCE  the  last  sentence  of  the  preceding  number 
of  '  Deucalion  '  was  written,  I  have  been  compelled, 
in  preparing  for  the  arrangement  of  my  Sheffield  mu- 
seum, to  look  with  nicety  into  the  present  relations 
of  theory  to  knowledge  in  geological  science  ;  and  find, 
to  my  no  small  consternation,  that  the  assertions  which  I 
had  supposed  beyond  dispute,  made  by  the  geologists 
of  forty  years  back,  respecting  the  igneous  origin  of  the 
main  crystalline  masses  of  the  primary  rocks,  are  now  all 
brought  again  into  question ;  and  that  the  investigations 
of  many  of  the  most  intelligent  observers  render  many 
former  theories,  in  their  generality,  more  than  doubtful. 
My  own  studies  of  rock  structure,  with  reference  to  land- 
scape, have  led  me,  also,  to  see  the  necessity  of  retreating 
to  and  securing  the  very  bases  of  knowledge  in  this  infin- 
itely difficult  science:  and  I  am  resolved,  therefore; 


Vin.  THE  ALPHABET. 

at  once  to  make  the  series  of  ( Deucalion '  an  absolutely 
trustworthy  foundation  for  the  geological  teaching  in  St. 
George's  schools  ;  by  first  sifting  what  is  really  known 
from  what  is  supposed  ;  and  then,  out  of  things  known, 
sifting  what  may  be  usefully  taught  to  young  people, 
from  the  perplexed  vanity  of  prematurely  systematic 
science. 

2.  I  propose,  also,  in  the  St.  George's  Museum  at  Shef- 
field, and  in  any  provincial  museums  hereafter  connected 
with  it,  to  allow  space  for  two  arrangements  of  inorganic 
substances  ;  one  for  mineralogists,  properly  so  called,  and 
the  general  public  ;  the  other  for  chemists,  and  advanced 
students  in  physical  science.     The  mineral ogical  collec- 
tion will  be  fully  described  and  explained  in  its  cata- 
logue, so  that  very  young  people  may  begin  their  study 
of  it  without  difficulty,  and  so  chosen  and  arranged  as  to 
be  comprehensible  by  persons  who  have  not  the  time  to 
make  themselves  masters  of  the  science  of  chemistry,  but 
who  may  desire  some  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  as- 
pect of  the  principal  minerals  which  compose  the  world. 
And  I  trust,  as  I  said  in  the  preceding  lecture,  that  the 
day  is  near  when  the  knowledge  of  the  native  forms  and 
aspects  of  precious  stones  will  be  made  a  necessary  part 
of  a  lady's  education ;  and  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
the  soils,  and  the  building  stones,  of  his  native  country,  a 
necessary  part  of  a  gentleman's. 

3.  The  arrangement  of  the  chemical  collection  I  shall 
leave  to  any  good  chemist  who  will  undertake  it :  I  sup- 


124  DEUCALION. 

pose  that  now  adopted  by  Mr.  Maskelyne  for  the  minera 
collection  in  the  British  Museum  may  be  considered  as 
permanently  authoritative. 

But  the  mineralogical  collection  I  shall  arrange  myself, 
as  aforesaid,  in  the  manner  which  I  think  likely  to  be 
clearest  for  simple  persons ;  omitting  many  of  the  rarer 
elements  altogether,  in  the  trust  that  they  will  be  suffi- 
ciently illustrated  by  the  chemical  series  ;  and  placing  the 
substances  most  commonly  seen  in  the  earth  beneath  our 
feet,  in  an  order  rather  addressed  to  the  convenience  of 
memory  than  to  the  symmetries  of  classification. 

4.  In  the  outset,  therefore,  I  shall  divide  our  entire 

• 

collection  into  twenty  groups,  illustrated  each  by  a  sepa- 
rately bound  portion  of  catalogue. 

These  twenty  groups  will  illustrate  the  native  states, 
and  ordinary  combinations,  of  nine  solid  oxides,  one 
gaseous  element  (fluorine),  and  ten  solid  elements,  placed 
in  the  following  order  : — 

1.  Silica. 

2.  Oxide  of  Titanium. 

3.  Oxide  of  Iron. 

4.  Alumina. 

5.  Potassa. 

6.  Soda. 

7.  Magnesia. 

8.  Calcium. 

9.  Glucina. 
10.  Fluorine. 


VIII.    THE    ALPHABET. 


125 


11.  Carbon. 

12.  Sulphur. 

13.  Phosphorus. 
14  Tellurium. 

15.  Uranium. 

16.  Tin. 
IT.  Lead. 

18.  Copper. 

19.  Silver. 

20.  Gold. 

5.  A  few  words  will  show  the  objects  proposed  by  this 
limited  arrangement.     The  three  first  oxides  are  placed 
in  one  group,  on  account  of  the  natural  fellowship  and 
constant  association  of  their  crystals. 

Added  to  these,  the  next  group  of  the  alkaline  earths 
will  constitute  one  easily  memorable  group  of  nine 
oxides,  out  of  which,  broadly  and  practically,  the  solid 
globe  of  the  earth  is  made,  containing  in  the  cracks, 
rents,  or  volcanic  pits  of  it,  the  remaining  eleven  sub- 
stances, variously  prepared  for  man's  use,  torment,  or 
temptation. 

6.  I  put  fluorine  by  itself,  on  account  of  its  notable 
importance  in  natural  mineralogy,  and  especially  in  that 
of  Cornwall,  Derbyshire,  and  Cumberland :  what  I  have 
to  say  of  chlorine  and  iodine  will  be  arranged  under  the 
same  head ;   then   the   triple  group  of   anomalous  sub- 
stances created  for  ministry  by  fire,  and   the  seven-fold 
group  of  the  great  metals,  complete  the  list  of  substances 


126  DEUCALION. 

which  must  be  generally  known  to  the  pupils  in  St. 
George's  schools.  The  phosphates,  sulphates,  and  car- 
bonates of  the  earths,  will  be  given  with  the  earths  ;  and 
those  of  the  metals,  under  the  metals.  The  carburets, 
sulphurets,  and  phosphurets,  *  under  carbon,  sulphur,  and 
phosphorus.  Under  glucina,  given  representatively,  on 
account  of  its  importance  in  the  emerald,  will  be  given 
what  specimens  may  be  desirable  of  the  minor  or  auxili- 
ary earths — baryta,  strontia,  etc. ;  and  under  tellurium 
and  uranium,  the  auxiliary  metals — platinum,  columbium, 
etc.,  naming  them  thus  together,  under  those  themselves 
named  from  Tellus  and  Uranus.  With  uranium  I  shall 
place  the  cupreous  micas,  for  their  similarity  of  aspect. 

7.  The  minerals  referred  to  each  of  these  twenty 
groups  will  be  further  divided,  under  separate  letters,  into 
such  minor  classes  as  may  be  convenient,  not  exceeding 
twenty :  the  letters  being  initial,  if  possible,  of  the  name 
of  the  class ;  but  the  letters  I  and  J  omitted,  that  they 
may  not  be  confused  with  numerals ;  and  any  letter  of 
important  sound  in  the  mineral's  name  substituted  for 
these,  or  for  any  other  that  would  come  twice  over. 
Then  any  number  of  specimens  may  be  catalogued  under 
each  letter. 

For  instance,  the  siliceous  minerals  which  are  the  sub- 
ject of  study  in  the  following  lecture  will  be  lettered 
thus : — 

*  I  reject  the  modern  term  'sulphide*  unhesitatingly.  It  is  ft* 
barbarous  as  '  carbide.' 


VIII.    THE   ALPHABET.  127' 

A.  Agate. 
0.  Carnelian. 
H.  Hyalite. 
L.  Chalcedony. 
M.  Amethyst. 
O.  Opal. 
Q.  Quartz. 
S.  Jasper. 

In  which  list,  M  is  used  that  we  may  not  have  A  repeated, 
and  will  yet  be  sufficiently  characteristic  of  Ame- 
thyst ;  and  L,  to  avoid  the  repetition  of  0,  may  stand 
for  Chalcedony ;  while  S,  being  important  in  the 
sound  of  Jasper,  will  serve  instead  of  excluded  J,  or  pre- 
engaged  A. 

The  complete  label,  then,  on  any  (principally)  siliceous 
mineral  will  be  in  such  form  as  these  following : — 

1  A  1,       meaning  Silica,  Agate,  No.  1. 

1  L  40,         "  Silica,  Chalcedony,  No.  40. 

1  Q  520,      "  Silica,  Quartz,  No.  520. 

8.  In  many  of  the  classes,  as  in  this  first  one  of  Silica, 
we  shall  not  need  all  our  twenty  letters  ;  but  there  will  be 
a  letter  A  to  every  class,  which  will  contain  the  examples 
that  explain  the  relation  and  connection  of  the  rest.  It 
happens  that  in  Silica,  the  agates  exactly  serve  this  pur- 
pose ;  and  therefore  may  have  A  for  their  proper  initial 
letter.  But  in  the  case  of  other  minerals,  the  letter  A 
will  not  be  the  initial  of  the  mineral's  name,  but  the 


128  DEUCALION. 

indication  of  its  character,  as  explanatory  of  the  succeed- 
ing series. 

Thus  the  specimen*  of  gold,  referred  to  as  20  A  1  in 
the  preceding  lecture,  is  the  first  of  the  series  exhibiting 
the  general  method  of  the  occurrence  of  native  gold  in 
the  rocks  containing  it;  and  the  complete  series  in  the 
catalogue  will  be — 

A.  Native  Gold,  in  various  geological 

formations. 

B.  Branched  Gold. 

C.  Crystalline  Gold. 

D.  Dispersed  Gold. 
G.  Granulate  Gold. 
K  Knitted  Gold. 
L.  Leaf  Gold. 

M.  Mossy  Gold. 

E.  Boiled  Gold. 

9.  It  may  be  at  once  stated  that  I  shall  always  retain 
the  word  '  branched '  for  minerals  taking  either  of  the 
forms  now  called  £  arborescent '  or  '  dendritic.'  The 
advance  of  education  must  soon  make  all  students  feel 
the  absurdity  of  using  the  epithet  '  tree-like '  in  Latin, 
with  a  different  meaning  from  the  epithet  '  tree-like '  in 
Greek.  My  general  word  *  branched  '  will  include  both 
the  so-called  '  arborescent '  forms  (meaning  those  branched 
in  straight  crystals),  and  the  so-called  l dendritic' 
(branched  like  the  manganese  or  oxide  in  Mocha  stones ;) 


Plate  IV. 

AMETHYST-QUARTZ, 
With  Warped  Faults  in  Concretion. 


Ssi 


VIII.    THE   ALPHABET. 


129 


but  with  most  accurate  explanation  of  tile  difference; 
while  the  term  '  spun  '  will  be  reserved  for  the  variously 
thread-like  forms,  inaccurately  now  called  dendritic, 
assumed  characteristically  by  native  silver  and  copper. 

Of  course,  thread,  branch,  leaf,  and  grain,  are  all  in! 
most  cases  crystalline,  no  less  definitely  than  larger  crys- 
tals ;  but  all  my  epithets  are  for  practical  service,  not 
scientific  definition  ;  and  I  mean  by  '  crystalline  gold '  a 
specimen  which  distinctly  shows  octohedric  or  other  speci- 
fic form  ;  and  by  '  branched  gold '  a  specimen  in  which 
such  crystalline  forms  are  either  so  indistinct  or  so  minute 
as  to  be  apparently  united  into  groups  resembling  branches 
of  trees. 

10.  Everyone  of  the  specimens  will  be  chosen  for  some 
specialty  of  character  ;  and  the  points  characteristic  of  it 
described  in  the  catalogue ;  and  whatever  questions 
respecting  its  structure  are  yet  unsolved,  and  significant, 
will  be  submitted  in  succession,  noted  each  by  a  Greek 
letter,  so  that  any  given  question  may  be  at  once  referred 
to.  Thus,  for  instance :  question  a  in  example  20  G  1 
will  be  the  relation  of  the  subdivided  or  granular  condi- 
tion of  crystalline  gold  to  porous  states  of  the  quartz 
matrix.  As  the  average  length  of  description  required 
by  any  single  specimen,  chosen  on  such  principle,  ought  to 
be  at  least  half  a  page  of  my  usual  type,  the  distribution 
of  the  catalogue  into  volumes  will  not  seem  unnecessary ; 
especially  as  in  due  course  of  time,  I  hope  that  each 
volume  will  consist  of  two  parts,  the  first  contain- 


130  DEUCALION. 

ing  questions  submitted,  and  the  second,  solutions  re- 
ceived. 

The  geological  serfes  will  be  distinguished  by  two 
letters  instead  of  one,  the  first  indicating  the  principal 
locality  of  the  formation,  or  at  least  that  whence  it  was 
first  named.  And  I  shall  distinguish  all  formations  by 
their  localities — "  M.  L.,  Malham  limestone "  ;  "  S.  S., 
Skiddaw  slate";  etc., — leaving  the  geologists  to  assign 
systematic  or  chronological  names  as  they  like.  What  is 
pliocene  to-day  may  be  pleistocene  to-morrow ;  and  what 
is  triassic  in  Mr.  A.'s  system,  tesserassic  in  Mr.  B.'s ;  but 
Turin  gravels  and  Warwick  sands  remain  where  they 
used  to  be,  for  all  that. 

These  particulars  being  understood,  the  lecture  which  I 
gave  this  spring  on  the  general  relations  of  precious 
minerals  to  human  interests,  may  most  properly  introduce 
us  to  our  detailed  and  progressive  labour ;  and  two  para- 
graphs of  it,  incidentally  touching  upon  methods  of  public 
instruction,  may  fitly  end  the  present  chapter. 

11.  In  all  museums  intended  for  popular  teaching, 
there  are  two  great  evils  to  be  avoided.  The  first  is, 
superabundance  ;  the  second,  disorder.  The  first  is  hav- 
ing too  much  of  everything.  You  will  find  in  your  own 
work  that  the  less  you  have  to  look  at,  the  better  you  at- 
tend. You  can  no  more  see  twenty  things  worth  seeing 
in  an  hour,  than  you  can  read  twenty  books  worth  reading 
in  a  day.  Give  little,  but  that  little  good  and  beautiful, 
and  explain  it  thoroughly.  For  instance,  here  in  crystal, 


VHI.    THE    ALPHABET  131 

you  may  have  literally  a  thousand  specimens,  every  one 
with  something  new  in  it  to  a  mineralogist ;  but  what  is 
the  use  of  that  to  a  man  who  has  only  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  to  spare  in  a  week?  Here  are  four  pieces — showing 
it  in  perfect  purity, — with  the  substances  which  it  is 
fondest  of  working  with,  woven  by  it  into  tissues  as  fine 
as  Penelope's;  and  one  crystal  of  it  stainless,  with  the 
favourite  shape  it  has  here  in  Europe — the  so-called 
'  flute-beak '  of  Dauphine, — let  a  man  once  understand 
that  crystal,  and  study  the  polish  of  this  plane  surface, 
given  to  it  by  its  own  pure  growth,  and  the  word  '  crys- 
tal '  will  become  a  miracle  to  him,  and  a  treasure  in  his 
heart  for  evermore. 

12.  Not  too  much,  is  the  first  law ;  not  in  disorder,  is 

% 

the  second.  Any  order  will  do,  if  it  is  fixed  and  intelli- 
gible :  no  system  is  of  use  that  is  disturbed  by  additions, 
or  difficult  to  follow  ;  above  all,  let  all  things,  for  popular 
use,  be  'beautifully  exhibited.  In  our  own  houses,  we 
may  have  our  drawers  and  bookcases  as  rough  as  we 
please  ;  but  to  teach  our  people  rightly,  we  must  make  it 
a  true  joy  to  them  to  see  the  pretty  things  we  have  to 
show :  and  we  must  let  them  feel  that,  although,  by 
poverty,  they  may  be  compelled  to  the  pain  of  labour,, 
they  need  not,  by  poverty,  be  debarred  from  the  felicifrj 
and  the  brightness  of  rest ;  nor  see  the  work  of  great 
artists,  or  of  the  great  powers  of  nature,  disgraced  by 
commonness  an}  vileness  in  the  manner  of  setting  them 
forth.  Stateliness,  splendour,  and  order  are  above  all 


132  DEUCALION. 

things  needful  in  places  dedicated  to  the  highest  labours 
of  thought :  what  we  willingly  concede  to  the  Graces  of 
Society,  we  must  reverently  offer  to  the  Muses  of  Seclu- 
sion ;  and  out  of  the  millions  spent  annually  to  give 
attractiveness  to  folly,  may  spare  at  least  what  is  necessary 
to  give  honour  to  Instruction. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FIRE    AND     WATER. 

1.  IN  examining  any  mineral,  I  wish  my  pupils  first  tc 
be  able  to  ascertain  easily  what  it  is ;  then  to  be  accur- 
ately informed  of  what  is  known  respecting  the  processes 
of  its  formation  ;  lastly,  to  examine,  with  such  precision 
as  their  time  or  instruments  may  permit,  the  effects  of 
such  formation  on  the  substance.     Thus,  from  almost  any 
piece  of  rock,  in  Derbyshire,  over  which  spring  water  has 
trickled  or  dashed  for  any  length  of  time,  they  may  break 
with  a  light  blow  a  piece  of  brown  incrustation,  which, 
with  little  experience,  they  may  ascertain  to  be  carbonate 
of  lime ; — of  which  they  may  authoritatively  be  told  that 
it   was   formed   by  slow   deposition   from   the   dripping 
water ; — and  in  which,  with  little  strain  of  sight,  they 
may  observe  structural  lines,  vertical  to  the  surface,  which 
present  many  analogies  with  those  which  may  be  seen  in 
coats  of  semi-crystalline  quartz,  or  reniform  chalcedony. 

2.  The  mofe  accurate  the  description  they  can  give  of 
the  aspect  of  the  stone,  and  the  more  authoritative  and 
sifted  the  account  they  can  render  of  the  circumstances  of 
its  origin,  the  greater  shall  I  consider  their  progress,  and 
the  more  hopeful  their  scientific  disposition. 


134  DEUCALION. 

But  I  absolutely  forbid  their  proceeding  to  draw  any 
logical  inferences  from  what  they  know  of  stalagmite,  to 
what  they  don't  know*  of  chalcedony.  They  are  not  to 
indulge  either  their  reason  or  their  imagination  in  the 
feeblest  flight  beyond  the  verge  of  actual  experience ;  and 
they  are  to  quench,  as  demoniacal  temptation,  any  dispo- 
sition they  find  in  themselves  to  suppose  that,  because 
stalagmite  and  chalcedony  both  show  lines  of  structure 
vertical  to  reniform  surface,  both  have  been  deposited  in 
a  similar  manner  from  a  current  solution.  They  are  to 
address  themselves  to  the  investigation  of  the  chalcedony 
precisely  as  if  no  stalagmite  were  in  existence, — to  inquire 
first  what  it  is ;  secondly,  when  and  how  it  is  known  to  be 
formed ;  and,  thirdly,  what  structure  is  discernible  in  it, 
— leaving  to  the  close  of  their  lives,  and  of  other  people's, 
the  collection,  from  evidence  thus  securely  accumulated, 
of  such  general  conclusions  as  may  then,  without  dispute, 
and  without  loss  of  time  through  prejudice  in  error,  man- 
ifest themselves,  not  as  'theories,'  but  as  demonstrable 
laws. 

When,  however,  for  the  secure  instruction  of  my  thus 
restrained  and  patient  pupils,  I  look,  myself,  for  what  is 
actually  told  me  by  eye-witnesses,  of  the  formation  of 
mineral  bodies,  I  find  the  sources  of  information  so  few, 
the  facts  so  scanty,  and  the  connecting  paste,  or  diluvial 
detritus,  of  past  guesses,  so  cumbrously  delaying  the  oper- 
ation of  rational  diamond-washing,  that  I  am  fain,  as  the 
shortest  way,  to  set  such  of  my  friends  as  are  minded  to 


IX.    FIRE    AND    WATER.  135" 

help  me,  to  begin  again  at  the  very  beginning ;  and  reas- 
sert, for  the  general  good,  what  their  eyes  can  now  see, 
in  what  their  hands  can  now  handle. 

3.  And  as  we  have  begun  with  a  rolled  flint,  it  seems 
by  special  guidance   of  Fors  that   the   friend   who  has 
already  first  contributed  to  the  art-wealth  of  the  Sheffield 
Museum,  Mr.  Henry  Willett,  is  willing  also  to  be   the 
first  contributor  to  its  scientific  treasuries  of  fact ;  and 
has  set  himself  zealously  to  collect  for  us    the  pheno- 
mena observable  in  the  chalk  and  flint  of  his  neighbour 
hood. 

Of  which  kindly  industry,  the  following  trustworthy 
notes  have  been  already  the  result,  which,  (whether  the 
like  observations  have  been  made  before  or  not  being  quite 
immaterial  to  the  matter  in  hand,)  are  assuredly  them- 
selves original  and  secure  :  not  mere  traditional  gossip. 
Before  giving  them,  however,  I  will  briefly  mark  their 
relations  to  the  entire  subject  of  the  structure  of  siliceous 
minerals. 

4.  There  are  a  certain  number  of  rocks  in  the  world, 
which  have  been  seen  by  human  eyes,  flowing,  white-hot, 
and  watched  by  human  eyes  as  they  cool  down.     The 
structure  of  these  rocks  is  therefore  absolutely  known  tc 
have  had  something  to  do  with  fire. 

There  are  a  certain  number  of  other  rocks  in  the  world 
which  have  been  seen  by  human  eyes  in  a  state  of  wet 
sand  or  mud,  and  which  have  been  watched,  as  they  dried; 
into  substances  more  or  less  resembling  stone.  The  struc- 


136  DEUCALION. 

ture  of  these  rocks  is  therefore  known  to  have  had  some 
thing  to  do  with  water. 

Between  these  two*mate rials,  whose  nature  is  avouched 
by  testimony,  there  occur  an  indefinite  number  of  rocks, 
which  no  human  eyes  have  ever  seen,  either  hot  or  muddy ; 
but  which  nevertheless  show  curious  analogies  to  the  as- 
certainably  cooled  substances  on  the  one  side,  and  to  the 
ascertainably  dried  substances  on  the  other.  Respecting 
these  medial  formations,  geologists  have  disputed  in  my 
ears  during  the  half-century  of  my  audient  life  ;  (and  had 
been  disputing  for  about  a  century  before  I  was  born,) 
without  having  yet  arrived  at  any  conclusion  whatever; 
the  book  now  held  to  be  the  principal  authority  on  the 
subject,  entirely  contradicting,  as  aforesaid,  the  conclu- 
sions which,  until  very  lately,  the  geological  world,  if  it 
had  not  accepted  as  incontrovertible,  at  least  asserted  as 
positive. 

5.  In  the  said  book,  however, — Gustaf  Bischof's  Chem- 
ical Geology,  — there  are,  at  last,  collected  a  large  num- 
ber of  important  and  secure  facts,  bearing  on  mineral  for- 
mation :  and  principles  of  microscopic  investigation  have 
been  established  by  Mr.  Sorby,  some  years  ago,  which 
have,  I  doubt  not,  laid  the  foundation,  at  last,  of  the  sound 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which  crystals  are 
formed.  Applying  Mr.  Sorby 's  method,  with  steady  in- 
dustry, to  the  rocks  of  Cumberland,  Mr.  Clifton  Ward 
has,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  placed  the  nature  of  these,  at 
least,  within  the  range  of  secure  investigation.  Mr. 


IX.    FIRE    AND   WATER. 


137  - 


"Ward's  kindness  has  induced  him  also  to  spare  the  time 
needful  for  the  test  of  the  primary  phenomena  of  agates- 
cent  structure  in  a  similar  manner ;  and  I  am  engraving 
the  beautiful  drawings  he  sent  me,  with  extreme  care,  for 
our  next  number ;  to  be  published  with  a  letter  from  him, 
containing,  I  suppose,  the  first  serviceable  description  of 
agatescent  structure  yet  extant.* 

6.  Hitherto,  however,  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 
accomplished,  nobody  can  tell  us  how  a  common  flint  is 
made.  Nobody  ever  made  one;  nobody  has  ever  seen 
one  naturally  coagulate,  or  naturally  dissolve ;  nobody 
has  ever  watched  their  increase,  detected  their  diminu- 
tion, or  explained  the  exact  share  which  organic  bodies 
have  in  their  formation.  The  splendid  labours  of  Mr. 
Bowerbank  have  made  us  acquainted  with  myriads  of 
organic  bodies  which  have  provoked  siliceous  concretion, 
or  become  entangled  in  it :  but  the  beautiful  forms  which 
these  present  have  only  increased  the  difficulty  of  deter- 
mining the  real  crystalline  modes  of  siliceous  structure, 
unaffected  by  organic  bodies. 

Y.  Crystalline  modes ^  I  say,  as  distinguished  from  crys- 
talline laws.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  mineralogy 
that  we  should  carefully  distinguish  between  the  laws  or 
limits  which  determine  the  possible  angles  in  the  form  of 

*  I  must,  however,  refer  the  reader  to  the  valuable  summary  of  work 
hitherto  done  on  this  subject  by  Professor  Kupert  Jones.  (Proceedings 
of  Geologists'  Association,  Vol.  IV.,  No.  7,)  for  examination  of  these 
questions  of  priority. 


138  DEUCALIOIT. 

a  mineral,  and  the  modes,  or  measures,  in  which,  accord- 
ing to  its  peculiar  nature  or  circumstances,  it  conducts 
itself  under  these  resfrictions. 

Thus  both  cuprite  and  fluor  are  under  laws  which  en- 
force cubic  or  octohedric  angles  in  their  crystals  ;  but 
cuprite  can  arrange  its  cubes  in  fibres  finer  than  those 
of  the  softest  silk,  while  fluor  spar  only  under  rare  con- 
ditions distinctly  elongates  its  approximate  cube  into  a 
parallelepiped. 

Again,  the  prismatic  crystals  of  Wavellite  arrange 
themselves  invariably  in  spherical  or  reniform  concre- 
tions ;  but  the  rhombohedral  crystals  of  quartz  and  hema- 
tite do  so  only  under  particular  conditions,  the  study  of 
which  becomes  a  quite  distinct  part  of  their  lithology. 

8.  This  stellar  or  radiant  arrangement  is  one  essential 
condition  in  the  forms  and  phenomena  of  agate  and  chal- 
cedony ;  and  Mr.  Clifton  Ward  has  shown  in  the  paper 
to  which  I  have  just  referred,  that  it  is  exhibited  under 
the  microscope  as  a  prevalent  condition  in  their  most 
translucent  substance,  and  on  the  minutest  scale. 

Now  all  siliceous  concretions,  distinguishing  themselves 
from  the  mass  of  the  surrounding  rocks,  are  to  be  ar- 
ranged under  two  main  classes ;  briefly  memorable  as 
knots  and  nuts ;  the  latter,  from  their  commonly  oval 
form,  ha\re  been  usually  described  by  mineralogists  as, 
more  specially,  l  almonds.' 

'Knots'  are  concretions  of  silica  round  some  central 
point  or  involved  substance,  (often  organic) ;  such  knots 


.  i  \ 


IX.    FIKE   AND   WATER. 


being  usually  harder  and  more  solid  in  the  centre  than  at 
the  outside,  and  having  their  fibres  of  crystallization,  if 
visible,  shot  outwards  like  the  rays  of  a  star,  forming  pyra- 
midal crystals  on  the  exterior  of  the  knot. 

9.  (  Almonds  '  are  concretions  of  silica  formed  in  cavi- 
ties of  rocks,  or,  in  some  cases,  probably  by  their  own 
energy  producing  the  cavities  they  enclose  ;  the  fibres  of 
crystallization,  if  visible,  being  directed  from  the  outside 
of  the  almond-shell  towards  its  interior  cavity. 

10.  These  two  precisely  opposite  conditions  are  sever- 
ally represented  best  by  a  knot  of  sound  black  flint  in 
chalk,  and  by  a  well-formed  hollow  agate  in  a  volcanic 
rock. 

I  have  placed  in  the  Sheffield  Museum  a  block  of  black 
flint,  formed  round  a  bit  of  Inoceramus  shell  ;  and  an 
almond-shell  of  agate,  about  six  times  as  big  as  a  cocoa 
nut,  which  will  satisfactorily  illustrate  these  two  states. 
But  between  the  two,  there  are  two  others  of  distinctly 
gelatinous  silica,  and  distinctly  crystalline  silica,  filling 
pores,  cavities,  and  veins,  in  rocks,  by  infiltration  or  se- 
cretion. And  each  of  these  states  will  be  found  passing 
through  infinite  gradations  into  some  one  of  the  three 
others,  so  that  separate  account  has  to  be  given  of  every 
step  in  the  transitions  before  we  can  rightly  understand 
the  main  types. 

11.  But  at  the  base  of  the  whole  subject  lies,  first,  the 
clear  understanding  of  the  way  a  knot  of  solid  crystalline 
substance  —  say,  a  dodecahedral  garnet  —  forms  itself  out  of 


140  DEUCALION. 

a  rock-paste,  say  greenstone  trap,  without  admitting  a  hairs- 
breadth  of  interstice  between  the  formed  knot  and  enclos- 
ing paste ;  and,  secondly,  clear  separation  in  our  thoughts, 
of  the  bands  or  layers  which  are  produced  by  crystalline 
segregation,  from  those  produced  by  successively  accu 
mulating  substance.  But  the  method  of  increase  of  crys- 
tals themselves,  in  an  apparently  undisturbed  solution, 
has  never  yet  been  accurately  described ;  how  much  less 
the  phenomena  resulting  from  influx  of  various  elements, 
and  changes  of  temperature  and  pressure.  The  frontis- 
piece to  the  third  number  of  '  Deucalion '  gives  typical 
examples  of  banded  structure  resulting  from  pure  crystal- 
line action  ;  and  the  three  specimens,  1.  A.  21,  22,  and  23, 
at  Sheffield,  furnish  parallel  examples  of  extreme  inter- 
est. But  a  particular  form  of  banding  in  flint,  first  no- 
ticed and  described  by  Mr.  S.  P.  Woodward,*  is  of  more 
interest  than  any  other  in  the  total  obscurity  of  its  origin ; 
and  in  the  extreme  decision  of  the  lines  by  which,  in  a 
plurality  of  specimens,  the  banded  spaces  are  separated 
from  the  homogeneous  ones,  indicating  the  first  approach 
to  the  conditions  which  produce,  in  more  perfect  mate- 
rials, the  forms  of,  so-called,  l  brecciated '  agates.  To- 
gether with  these,  a  certain  number  of  flints  are  to  be  ex- 
amined which  present  every  appearance  of  having  been 
violently  fractured  and  re-cemented.  Whether  fractured 
by  mechanical  violence,  by  the  expansive  or  decomponent 

*  'Geological  Magazine,'  1864,  vol.  i.,  p.  145,  pi.  vii.  and  viii 


IX.    FIRE   AND   WATER.  14:1 

forces  of  contained  minerals,  or  by  such  slow  contraction 
and  re-gelation  as  must  have  taken  place  in  most  veins 
through  masses  of  rock,  we  have  to  ascertain  by  the  con- 
tinuance of  such  work  as  my  friend  has  here  begun. 

LETTER  I.  * — Introductory. 

12.  "  I  am  beginning  to  be  perplexed  about  the  num- 
ber of  flints,  containing  problems  and  illustrations,  and 
wondering  to  what  extent  my  inquiries  will  be  of  any  use 
to  you. 

"  I  intended  at  first  to  collect  only  what  was  really 
beautiful  in  itself — *  crystalline  M  but  how  the  subject 
widens,  and  how  the  arbitrary  divisions  do  run  into  one 
another !  What  a  paltry  shifting  thing  our  classification 
is !  One  is  sometimes  tempted  to  give  it  all  up  in  disgust, 
and  I  have  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  all  scientific  classifi- 
cation (except  for  mutual  aid  to  students)  is  absurd 
and  pedantic :  (a)  varieties,  species,  genera,  classes, 
orders,  have  most  of  them  more  in  common  than  of 
divergence, — c  a  forming  spirit '  everywhere,  for  use  and 
beauty. 

*  I  shall  put  my  own  notes  on  these  and  any  future  communications 
I  may  insert,  in  small  print  at  the  bottom  of  the  pages  ;  and  with  let- 
ter-references— a,  5,  etc.  ;  but  the  notes  of  the  authors  themselves  will 
be  put  at  the  end  of  their  papers,  in  large  print,  and  with  number-ref- 
erences— 1,  2,  etc. 

(a)  All,  at  least,  is  imperfect ;  and  most  of  it  absurd  in  the  attempt 
to  be  otherwise. 


142  DEUCALION. 

"It  is  (to  me)  impossible  to  separate  purely  mineral 
and  chemical  siliceous  bodies  in  chalk,  (b)  from  those 
which  are  partly  formed  by  the  silicate-collecting  sponges, 
which  seem  to  have  given  them  their  forms. 

"  Who  is  to  say  that  the  radiations  and  accretions  of  a 
crystal  are  not  life,  but  that  the  same  arrangements  in  a 
leaf  or  a  tree  are  life  ? — that  the  clouds  which  float  in 
their  balanced  changeableness  are  not  as  much  guided  and 
defined  as  the  clouds  of  the  chalcedony,  or  the  lenses  of 
the  human  eye  which  perceives  them  ? 

"  I  think  the  following  facts  are  plain  : 

"  1.  The  chalk  bands  do  go  through  the  flint. 

"  2.  Fissures  in  flints  are  constantly  repaired  by  fresh 
deposits  of  chalcedony  and  silex. 

"  3.  Original  sponge  matter  is  preserved  (c)  and  obliter- 
ated by  siliceous  deposit,  in  extent  and  degree  varying 
infinitely,  and  apparently  proportioned  to  the  amount  of 
iron  present — i.  e.,  the  iron  preserves  original  form,  unless 
when  combined  with  sulphur  enough  to  crystallize,  when 
all  the  original  structure  disappears. 

"  4.  Amygdaloids  seem  to  be  formed  by  a  kind  of  inde- 
pendent or  diverse  arrangement  of  molecules,  caused  by 
slight  admixture  of  foreign  minerals." 

(5)  It  may  be  doubtful  if  any  such  exist  in  chalk ;  but,  if  they  exist, 
they  will  eventually  be  distinguishable. 

(c)  Q.  The  form  or  body  of  it  only ;  is  the  matter  itself  ever  pre- 
served ? 


IX.    FIRE   AND   WATER.  143' 

LETTER  II. — Memoranda  made  at  ManteWs  Quarry^ 
Cuckfieldj  on  the  banding  noticed  in  the  beds  and 
nodules  of  the  siliceous  calciferous  sandstone  there, 
31st  May,  1876. 

Nos.  I.  and  II.  Ovate,  concentric,  ferruginous  bandings ; 
the  centre  apparently  (1)  free  from  banding. 

III.  Bands  arranged  at  acute  angles.     These  bands  are 
not  caused  by  fracture,  but  apparently  by  the  intersection, 
at  an  acute  angle,  of  the  original  lines  of  deposit,  (d) 

IV.  In   this   specimen   the   newly   fractured   surfaces 
show  no   bandings,   but  the  weathered  surface  develops 
the  banding. 

V.  Ditto — i.  e.   bands  parallel ;    much   more  ferrugi 
nous,   and   consequently   more   friable  when  exposed   to 
weathering. 

May  not  something  be  learnt  regarding  the  laws  of 
banding  in  agates,  flints,  etc.,  from  observing  the  arrange- 
ment of  banding  in  rocks  composed  mainly  of  siliceous 
matter  ?  (e} 

May  not  some  of  the  subtler  influences  which  regulate 
the  growth  of  trees  in  their  lines  of  annual  increase  (mag- 

Note  1,  page  170. 

(d)  These  angular  concretions  require  the  closest  study  ;  see  the  seg- 
ments of  spheres  in  the  plate  given  in  the  last  number. 

(e)  More,  I  should  say,  from  the  agates,  respecting  the  laws  of  band 
ing  in  rocks:    see  the  plate  to  the  present  number.     When  we  can 
explain  the  interruptions  of  the  bands  on  such  scale  as  this,  we  may 
begin  to  understand  some  of  those  in  larger  strata. 


144  DEUCALION. 

netic  probably)  have  some  effect  in  the  arrangement  of 
minerals  in  solution  ? — nay,  even  of  the  higher  vital  pro- 
cesses, such  as  the  deposition  of  osseous  matter  in  teeth 
and  bones  ?  (f) 

LETTER  III. — Memoranda  inspecting  landed  chalk. 

I.  In  the  banded  lines  (ferruginous)  noticed  above  and 
below  the  horizontal  fissures  beneath  the  cliff  at  the  Hope 
Gap,  Seaford,  it  is  evident  that  these  lines  are  not  mark- 
ings of  original  deposition,  but  are  caused  by  successive 
infiltrations  of  water  containing  iron  in  solution,  (g) 

II.  Concentric  markings  of  the  same  nature  are  observ- 
able in  places  where — 

a.  Iron  pyrites  are  decomposing,  and  the  iron  in  solu- 
tion is  being  successively  infiltrated  into  the  surrounding 
chalk  rock. 

b.  From  dropping  of  ferruginous  springs  through  crev- 
ices on  horizontal  surfaces. 

c.  This  is  observable  also  on  surfaces  of  tabular  flint. 

III.  Yery  peculiar  contorted  bandings,  (similar  to  the 
so-called  contorted-rocks,)  are  observable  in  certain  places, 
notably  in  the  face  of  the  chalk-pit  on  the  east  side  of  Gold- 
stone  Bottom.     This  chalk-pit,  or  quarry,  is  remarkable — 

(/)  Yes,  certainly;  but  in  such  case,  the  teeth  and  bones  act  by 
mineral  law  ;  not  the  minerals  by  teeth  and  bone  law. 

(g)  Questionable.  Bands  are  almost  always  caused  by  concretion, 
or  separation,  not  infiltration.  However  caused,  the  essential  point, 
in  the  assertion  of  which  this  paper  has  so  great  value,  is  their  distino 
tion  from  strata. 


IX.    FIRE   AND   WATER.  145 

t.  For  the  contorted  bandings  in  the  chalk  rock  which 
are  not  markings  of  original  deposition ,  being  quite  inde- 
pendent of  original  stratification.  (A) 

2.  For  the  excessive  shattering  and  fissuring  observable. 

3.  For  the  fact  that  these  cracks  and  fissures  have  been 
refilled  with  distinctive  and  varying  substances,  as  with 
flint,  clay,   Websterite,   and  intermediate  admixtures   of 
these  substances. 

4.  For  veins  of  flint,  formerly  horizontal,  which  show 
visible  signs  of  displacement  by  subsidence. 

5.  For  the  numerous  fissures  in  these  veins  of  tabular 
flint  being   stained   by   iron,   which  apparently   aids   in 
the  further  process  of  splitting  up  and  of  widening  the 
minute  crevices  in  the  flint.     The  iron  also  appears  to  be 
infiltrated  at  varying  depths  into  the  body  of  unfractured 
flint. 

Qy.  Has  not  ordinary  flint  the  power  or  property  of 
absorbing  ferruginous  fluid  ? 

LETTER  1Y. — Memoranda  respecting  brecciate  flint. 

"June  7,  1876. 

"  I  hasten  to  report  the  result  of  my  fresh  inquiry  re- 
specting the  specimen  1  first  sent  to  you  as  '  breccia,'  but 
which  you  doubted. 

(h)  A  most  important  point.  It  is  a  question  with  me  whether  the 
greater  number  of  minor  contortions  in  Alpine  limestones  may  not  have 
been  produced  in  this  manner.  When  once  the  bands  are  arranged  by 
segregation,  chemical  agencies  will  soon  produce  mechanical  separation, 
as  of  original  beds. 


146 


DEUCALION. 


"  The  site  is  the  embouchure  of  the  little  tidal  river 
Cuckmere,  about  two  miles  east  of  Seaford.  I  found  a 
block  at  about  the  same  spot  (about  three  hundred  yards 
east  of  the  coastguard  station,  and  about  three  quarters 
of  the  distance  west  of  the  river's  mouth). 

"  The  rocks  are  here  covered  with  sand,  or  with  a  bed 
of  the  old  valley  alluvium,  not  yet  removed  by  wave 
action.  Travelling  westward,  the  transported  blocks  of 
breccia  gradually  increase  in  size,  (a  pretty  sure  augury 
that  they  were  derived  from  a  western  source).  The 
whole  coast  is  subject  to  a  very  rapid  degradation  and  con- 
sequent encroachment  of  the  sea,  the  average  in  some 
places  being  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  yearly.  At 
a  spot  a  hundred  yards  east  of  the  coastguard  station, 
blocks  of  one  or  two  tons  were  visible.  The  denuded 
chalk  rock  is  of  chalk,  seamed  and  fissured  ;  the  cliff  of 
the  same  nature ;  but  all  the  flints,  and  especially  the  tab- 
ular veins,  are  splintered  and  displaced  to  an  unusual 
extent. 

"Farther  westward  yet,  the  blocks  of  breccia  weigh 
several  tons,  the  cement  being  itself  fissured,  and  in  some 
places  consisting  of  angular  fragments  stained  with  iron. 
From  one  mass  I  extracted  a  hollow  circular  flint  split 
into  four  or  five  pieces,  the  fragments,  although  displaced, 
re-cemented  in  juxtaposition,  (i) 


(i)  I  am  not  prepared  to  admit,  yet,  that  any  of  these  phenomena  are 
owing  to  violence.     We  shall  see. 


IX.    FIRE   AND   WATER.  147' 

"  At  the  Ebpe  Gap,  the  whole  cliff  becomes  a  fractured 
mass,  the  fissures  being  refilled,  sometimes  with  calcareous 
cement,  sometimes  with  clay,  and  in  other  places  being 
hollow. 

"  From  the  sides  of  an  oblique  fissure  filled  with  clay  I 
extracted  two  pieces  of  a  nodular  flint,  separated  from 
each  other  by  a  two-inch  seam  of  clay :  when  replaced 
(the  clay  having  been  removed)  the  two  fitted  exactly.  An 
examination  of  the  rocks  shows  that  the  fissures,  which 
run  in  all  directions,  are  largest  when  nearly  horizontal, 
dipping  slightly  seawards. 

"  The  upper  and  lower  portions  of  some  of  these  hori 
zontal   fissures   are   banded   with   iron   stains,   evidently 
derived  from  iron- water  percolating  the  seams. 

"  If  I  am  right,  therefore,  the  mystery  seems  to  be  ex- 
plained thus :  (k) — 

"  I.  Rain  water,  charged  with  carbonic  acid,  falling  on 
the  hills  behind,  trickles  past  the  grass  and  humus  beneath, 
through  the  cracks  in  the  chalk,  dissolving  the  carbonate 
of  lime  into  a  soluble  bi-carbonate.  Falling  downwards, 
it  escapes  seawards  through  the  horizontal  fissures,  widen- 
ing them  by  its  solvent  power. 

"  II.  The  weight  of  the  superincumbent  mass  by  slow, 

(k)  I  think  this  statement  of  Mr.  Willett's  extremely  valuable  ;  and 
see  no  reason  to  doubt  its  truth,  as  an  explanation  of  the  subsidence  of 
chalk  and  limestone  in  certain  localities.  I  do  not  hitherto  receive  it 
as  any  explanation  of  fracture  in  flints.  I  believe  Dover  Cliffs  might 
gink  to  Channel  bottom  without  splitting  a  flint,  unless  bedded. 


148  DEUCALION. 

certain,  irregular  pressure,  descends,  maintaining  the  con- 
tact of  surfaces,  but  still  ever  sinking  at  intervals,  varied 
by  the  resisting  forces* of  weight  and  pressure. 

"  III.  This  process  is  probably  accelerated  by  the  inflow 
and  reflow  of  salt  water  at  the  ebb  and  flow  of  tide  (into 
the  fissures.) 

"  IV.  At  certain  periods,  probably  in  the  summer,  (as 
soluble  bi-carbonate  of  lime  becomes  less  soluble  as 
temperature  increases,)  a  portion  becomes  redeposited  as 
a  hard  semi-crystalline  calcareous  cement. 

"  Y.  This  cement  appears,  in  some  instances,  to  be 
slightly  siliceous,  and  may  have  a  tendency,  by  the 
mutual  attraction  of  siliceous  matter,  to  form  solid  layers 
of  tabular  flint. 

"  YI.  If  these  deductions  be  correct,  it  is  probable  that 
the  great  results  involved  in  the  sinking  of  limestone 
hills,  and  the  consequent  encroachment  of  the  sea,  may 
be  traced  (step  by  step)  to  the  springs  in  valleys  i  which 
run  among  the  hills ; '  thence  to  the  rain  and  dewdrops  ; 
higher  up  to  the  mists  and  clouds ;  and  so  onward,  by 
solar  heat,  to  the  ocean,  where  at  last  again  they  find 
their  rest." 

LETTER  Y. — Final  Abstract. 

"June  13,  1876. 

"In  addition  to  the  heat  derived  from  summer  and 
atmospheric  changes,  there  will  be  a  considerable  amount 
of  heat  evolved  from  the  friction  produced  between  the 
sides  of  fissures  when  slipping  and  subsidence  occur, 


IX.    FIRE   AND    WATER. 

and  from  the  crushing  down  of  flint  supports  when  weight 
overcomes  resistance. 

"  After  heavy  rainfall — 

1.  Fissures  are  filled. 

2.  Solution  is  ravid. 

3.  Hydraulic  pressure  increases. 

4.  Fissures  are  widened. 

"  After  a  period  of  dry  weather — 
1".  Solution  is  diminished. 

2.  Hydraulic  pressure  relieved. 

3.  Subsidence   and  flint-crushing  commence,  or  pro- 

gress more  rapidly. 

4.  Heat  is  evolved. 

5.  Carbonic  acid  discharged. 

6.  Semi-crystalline   carbonate  of   lime  is   deposited 

around. 

a.  Fragments  of  crushed  flint,  (at  rest  at  intermit- 
ting intervals  between  motion  of  rocks). 
5.  Angular  fragments  of  original  chalk  rock. 
c.  Angular  fractured  pieces  of  old  cement. 
"  1  have  a  dawning  suspicion  that  siliceous  deposits  (as 
chalcedony,  etc.)  are   made   when  the  temperature  falls, 
for  reasons  which  1  must  postpone  to  a  future  paper." 


(1)  Probably  the  same  arrangement  exists  (concentric), 
but  has  not  been  made  visible  because  the  iron  has  not 
been  oxydized. 


CHAPTER  X. 


VILLAGE  OP  SIMPLON,    2d  September,  1876. 

1.  I  AM  writing  in  the  little  one-windowed  room  open- 
ing from  the  salle-a-manger  of  the  Hotel  de  la  Poste ; 
bin  under  some  little  disadvantage,  being  disturbed  partly 
by  the  invocation,  as  it  might  be  fancied,  of  calamity  on 
the  heads  of  nations,  by  the   howling  of   a  frantic  wind 
from  the  Col ;  and  partly  by  the  merry  clattering  of  the 
knives  and  forks  of  a  hungry  party  in  the  salon  doing 
their  best  to  breakfast   adequately,   while  the   diligence 
changes  horses. 

In  that  same  room, — a  little  earlier  in  the  year, — two- 
and-thirty  years  ago,  my  father  and  mother  and  I  were 
sitting  at  one  end  of  the  long  table  in  the  evening :  and 
at  the  other  end  of  it,  a  quiet,  somewhat  severe-looking, 
and  pale,  English  (as  we  supposed)  traveller,  with  his 
wife ;  she,  and  my  mother,  working ;  her  husband  care- 
fully completely  some  mountain  outlines  in  his  sketch- 
book. 

2.  Those  days  are  become  very  dim  to  me  ;  and  I  for- 
get which   of  the  groups  spoke  first.     My   father  and 


x.  'THIRTY  YEARS  SINCE.  151- 

mother  were  always  as  shy  as  children ;  and  our  busy 
fellow-traveller  seemed  to  us  taciturn,  slightly  inaccessi- 
ble, and  even  Alpestre,  and,  as  it  were,  hewn  out  of 
mountain  flint,  in  his  serene  labour. 

Whether  some  harmony  of  Scottish  accent  struck  my 
father's  ear,  or  the  pride  he  took  in  his  son's  accomplish- 
ments prevailed  over  his  own  shyness,  I  think  we  first 
ventured  word  across  the  table,  with  view  of  informing 
the  grave  draughtsman  that  we  also  could  draw.  Where- 
upon my  own  sketch-book  was  brought  out,  the  pale 
traveller  politely  permissive.  My  good  father  and 
mother  had  stopped  at  the  Simplon  for  me,  (and  now, 
feeling  miserable  myself  in  the  thin  air,  I  know  what  it 
cost  them,)  because  1  wanted  to  climb  the  high  point 
immediately  west  of  the  Col,  thinking  thence  to  get  a 
perspective  of  the  chain  joining  the  Fletschhorn  to  the 
Monte  Rosa.  I  had  been  drawing  there  the  best  part  of 
the  afternoon,  and  had  brought  down  w^ith  me  careful 
studies  of  the  Fletschhorn  itself,  and  of  a  great  pyramid 
far  eastward,  whose  name  I  did  not  know,  but,  from  its 
bearing,  supposed  it  must  be  the  Matterhorn,  which  1 
had  then  never  seen. 

3.  I  have  since  lost  both  these  drawings ;  and  if  they 
were  given  away,  in  the  old  times  when  I  despised  the 
best  I  did,  because  it  was  not  like  Turner,  and  any  friend 
has  preserved  them,  I  wish  they  might  be  returned  to  me  ; 
for  they  would  be  of  value  in  Deucalion,  and  of  greater 
value  to  myself ;  as  having  won  for  me,  that  evening,  the 


152  DEUCALION. 

sympathy  and  help  of  James  Forbes.  For  his  eye  grew 
keen,  and  his  face  attentive,  as  he  examined  the  drawings  ; 
and  he  turned  instantly  to  me  as  to  a  recognized  fellow- 
workman, — though  yet  young,  no  less  faithful  than  him- 
self. 

He  heard  kindly  what  I  had  to  ask  about  the  chain  I 
had  been  drawing ;  only  saying,  with  a  slightly  proud 
smile,  of  my  peak  supposed  to  be  the  Matterhora,*  u  No, 
— and  when  once  you  have  seen  the  Matterhorn,  you  will 
never  take  anything  else  for  it !  " 

He  told  me  as  much  as  I  was  able  to  learn,  at  that 
time,  of  the  structures  of  the  chain,  and  some  pleasant 
general  talk  followed ;  but  I  knew  nothing  of  glaciers 
then,  and  he  had  his  evening's  work  to  finish.  And  I 
never  saw  him  again. 

I  wonder  if  he  sees  me  now,  or  guided  my  hand  as  I 
cut  the  leaves  of  M.  Yiolet-le-Duc's  f  Massif  du  Mont 
Blanc  '  this  morning,  till  I  came  to  page  58, — and  stop- 
ped ! 

I  must  yet  go  back,  for  a  little  while,  to  those  dead 
days. 

4.  Failing  of  Matterhorn  on  this  side  of  the  valley  of 
the  Rhone,  I  resolved  to  try  for  it  from  the  other ;  and 
begged  my  father  to  wait  yet  a  day  for  me  at  Brieg. 

No  one,  then,  had  ever  heard  of  the  Bell  Alp  ;  and  few 
English  knew  even  of  the  Aletsch  glacier.  I  laid  my 

*  It  was  the  Weisshorn. 


X.    '  THIRTY    YEAKS    SINCE.'  153" 

plans  from  the  top  of  the  Simplon  Col ;  and  was  up  at 
four,  next  day ;  in  a  cloudless  morning,  climbing  the  lit- 
tle rock  path  which  ascends  directly  to  the  left,  after 
crossing  the  bridge  over  the  Rhone,  at  Brieg  ;  path  which 
is  quite  as  critical  a  little  bit  of  walking  as  the  Fonts  of 
the  Her  de  Glace  ;  and  now,  encumbered  with  the  late 
fallen  shatterings  of  a  flake  of  gneiss  of  the  shape  of  an 
artichoke  leaf,  and  the  size  of  the  stern  of  an  old  ship  of 
the  line,  which  has  rent  itself  away,  and  dashed  down  like 
a  piece  of  the  walls  of  Jericho,  leaving  exposed,  under- 
neath, the  undulatory  surfaces  of  pure  rock,  which,  I  am 
under  a  very  strong  impression,  our  young  raw  geologists 
take  for  real  "  muttoned  "  glacier  tracks.* 

5.  I  took  this  path  because  I  wanted  first  to  climb  the 
green  wooded  mass  of  the  hill  rising  directly  over  the  val- 
ley, so  as  to  enfilade  the  entire  profiles  of  the  opposite 
chain,  and  length  of  the  valley  of  the  Khone,  from  its 
brow. 

By  midday  I  had  mastered  it,  and  got  up  half  as  high 
again,  on  the  barren  ridge  above  it,  commanding  a  little 
tarn  ;  whence,  in  one  panorama  are  seen  the  Simplon  and 
Saas  Alps  on  the  south,  with  the  Matterhorn  closing  the 
avenue  of  the  valley  of  St.  Nicolas ;  and  the  Aletsch 
Alps  on  the  north,  with  all  the  lower  reach  of  the  Aletsch 
glacier.  This  panorama  I  drew  carefully ;  and  slightly 


*  I  saw  this  wisely  suggested  in  a  recent  number  of  the  '  Alpine 
Journal/ 


154:  DEUCALION. 

coloured  afterwards,  in  such  crude  way  as  I  was  then 
able ;  and  fortunately  not  having  lost  this,  I  place  it  in 
the  Sheffield  Museum, "for  a  perfectly  trustworthy  witness 
to  the  extent  of  snow  on  the  Breithorn,  Fletschhorn,  and 
Montagne  de  Saas,  thirty  years  ago. 

My  drawing  finished,  I  ran  round  and  down  obliquely 
to  the  Bell  Alp,  and  so  returned  above  the  gorge  of  the 
Aletsch  torrent — making  some  notes  on  it  afterwards  used 
in  '  Modern  Painters,'  many  and  many  such  a  day  of  foot 
and  hand  labour  having  been  needed  to  build  that  book, 
in  which  my  friends,  nevertheless,  I  perceive,  still  regard 
nothing  but  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  its  elegant  lan- 
guage, and  are  entirely  indifferent,  with  respect  to  that 
and  all  other  books  they  read,  whether  the  elegant  lan- 
guage tells  them  truths  or  lies. 

That  book  contains,  however,  (and  to-day  it  is  needful 
that  I  should  not  be  ashamed  in  this  confidence  of  boast- 
ing,) the  first  faithful  drawings  ever  given  of  the  Alps, 
not  only  in  England,  but  in  Europe ;  and  the  first  defini- 
tions of  the  manner  in  which  their  forms  have  been  de- 
veloped out  of  their  crystalline  rocks. 

6.  '  Definitions '  only,  observe,  and  descriptions ;  but 
no  (  explanations.'  I  knew,  even  at  that  time,  far  too 
much  of  the  Alps  to  theorize  on  them ;  and  having 
learned,  in  the  thirty  years  since,  a  good  deal  more,  with 
the  only  consequence  of  finding  the  facts  more  inexplica- 
ble to  me  than  ever,  laid  M.  Yiolet-le-Duc's  book  on  the 
seat  of  the  carriage  the  day  before  yesterday,  among  other 


X,    '  THIRTY    YEARS    SINCE.'  155  * 

stores  and  preparations  for  passing  the  Simplon,  contem- 
plating on  its  open  first  page  the  splendid  dash  of  its  first 
sentence  into  space, — "  La  croute  terrestre,  refroidie  au 
moment  da  plissement  qui  a  forme  le  massif  du  Mont 
Blanc," — with  something  of  the  same  amazement,  and  same 
manner  of  the  praise,  which  our  French  allies  are  reported 
to  have  rendered  to  our  charge  at  Balaclava  : — 

"  C'est  magnifique  ; — mais  ce  n'est  pas" — la  geologic. 

7.  I  soon  had  leisure  enough  to  look  farther,  as  the 
steaming  horses  dragged  me  up  slowly  round  the  first 
ledges  of  pines,  under  a  drenching  rain  which  left  noth- 
ing but  their  nearest  branches  visible.  Usually,  their 
nearest  branches,  and  the  wreaths  of  white  cloud  braided 
among  them,  would  have  been  all  the  books  I  cared  to 
read ;  but  both  curiosity  and  vanity  were  piqued  by  the 
new  utterances,  prophetic,  apparently,  in  claimed  author- 
ity, on  the  matters  timidly  debated  by  me  in  old  time. 

I  soon  saw  that  the  book  manifested,  in  spite  of  so 
great  false-confidence,  powers  of  observation  more  true  in 
their  scope  and  grasp  than  can  be  traced  in  any  writer  on 
the  Alps  since  De  Saussure.  But,  alas,  before  we  had  got 
up  to  Berisal,  I  had  found  also  more  fallacies  than  1  could 
count,  in  the  author's  first  statements  of  physical  law ; 
and  seen,  too  surely,  that  the  poor  Frenchman's  keen 
natural  faculty,  and  quite  splendid  zeal  and  industry,  had 
all  been  wasted,  through  the  wretched  national  vanity 
which  made  him  interested  in  Mont  Blanc  only  '  since  it 


156  DEUCALION. 

became  a  part  of  France,'  and  had  thrown  him  totally 
into  the  clique  of  Agassiz  and  Desor,  with  results  in 
which  neither  the  clique,  nor  M.  Yiolet,  are  likely,  in  the 
end,  to  find  satisfaction. 

8.  Too  sorrowfully  weary  of  bearing  with  the  provin- 
cial temper,  and  insolent  errors,  of  this  architectural 
restoration  of  the  Gothic  globe,  I  threw  the  book  aside, 
and  took  up  my  Carey's  Dante,  which  is  always  on  the 
carriage  seat,  or  in  my  pocket — not  exactly  for  reading, 
but  as  an  antidote  to  pestilent  things  and  thoughts  in 
general ;  and  store,  as  it  were,  of  mental  quinine, — a  few 
lines  being  usually  enough  to  recover  me  out  of  any 
shivering  marsh  fever  fit,  brought  on  among  foulness  or 
stupidity. 

It  opened  at  a  favourite  old  place,  in  the  twenty-first 
canto  of  the  Paradise,  (marked  with  an  M.  long  ago, 
when  I  was  reading  Dante  through  to  glean  his  mountain 
descriptions) : — 

"  'Twixt  either  shore 
Of  Italy,  nor  distant  from  thy  land,"  etc.  ; 

and  I  read  on  into  the  twenty-third  canto,  down  to  St 
Benedict's 

"  There,  all  things  are,  as  they  have  ever  been ; 
Our  ladder  reaches  even  to  that  clime, 
Whither  the  patriarch  Jacob  saw  it  stretch 
Its  topmost  round,  when  it  appeared  to  him 
With  angels  laden.     But  to  mount  it  now 
None  lifts  his  foot  from  earth ;  and  hence  my  rule 


157 


Is  left  a  profitless  stain  upon  the  leaves. 

The  walls,  for  abbey  reared,  turned  into  dens ; 

The  cowls,  to  sacks  choked  up  with  musty  meal. 


His  convent,  Peter  founded  without  gold 

Or  silver ;  I,  with  prayers  and  fasting,  mine ; 

And  Francis,  his,  in  meek  humility. 

And  if  thou  note  the  point  whence  each  proceeds, 

Then  look  what  it  hath  erred  to,  thou  shalt  find 

The  white  turned  murky. 

Jordan  was  turned  back, 
And  a  less  wonder  than  the  refluent  sea 
May,  at  God's  pleasure,  work  amendment  here." 

9.  I  stopped  at  this,  (holding  myself  a  brother  of  the 
third  order  of  St.  Francis,)  and  began  thinking  how  long 
it  would  take  for  any  turn  of  tide  by  St.  George's  work, 
when  a  ray  of  light  came  gleaming  in  at  the  carriage 
window,  and  I  saw,  where  the  road  turns  into  the  high 
ravine  of  the  glacier  galleries,  a  little  piece  of  the  Breit- 
horn  snowfield  beyond. 

Somehow,  I  think,  as  fires  never  burn,  so  skies  never 
clear,  while  they  are  watched ;  so  I  took  up  my  Danto 
again,  though  scarcely  caring  to  read  more ;  and  it 
opened,  this  time,  not  at  an  accustomed  place  at  all,  but 
at  the  "  I  come  to  aid  thy  wish,"  of  St.  Bernard,  in  the 
thirty-first  canto.  Not  an  accustomed  place,  because  I 
always  think  it  very  unkind  of  Beatrice  to  leave  him  to 
St.  Bernard ;  and  seldom  turn  expressly  to  the  passage : 
but  it  has  chanced  lately  to  become  of  more  significance  to 


158  DEUCALION. 

me,  and  I  read  on  eagerly,  to  the  "  So  burned  the  peace- 
ful oriflamme,"  when  the  increasing  light  became  so 
strong  that  it  awaked  me,  like  a  new  morning ;  and  I 
closed  the  book  again,  and  looked  out. 

We  had  just  got  up  to  the  glacier  galleries,  and  the 
last  films  of  rain  were  melting  into  a  horizontal  bar  of 
blue  sky  which  had  opened  behind  the  Bernese  Alps. 

I  watched  it  for  a  minute  or  two  through  the  alternate 
arch  and  pier  of  the  glacier  galleries,  and  then  as  we  got 
on  the  open  hill  flank  again,  called  to  Bernardo  *  to  stop. 

10.  Of  all  views  of  the  great  mountains  that  I  know  in 
Switzerland,  I  think  this,  of  the  southern  side  of  the 
Bernese  range  from  the  Simplon,  in  general  the  most  dis- 
appointing— for  two  reasons :  the  first,  that  the  green 
mass  of  their  foundation  slopes  so  softly  to  the  valley  that 
it  takes  away  half  the  look  of  their  height ;  and  the 
second,  that  the  greater  peaks  are  confused  among  the 
crags  immediately  above  the  Aletsch  glacier,  and  cannot, 
in  quite  clear  weather,  be  recognized  as  more  distant,  or 
more  vast.  But  at  this  moment,  both  these  disadvan- 
tages were  totally  conquered.  The  whole  valley  was  full 
of  absolutely  impenetrable  wreathed  cloud,  nearly  all 
pure  white,  only  the  palest  grey  rounding  the  changeful 
domes  of  it ;  and  beyond  these  domes  of  heavenly 
marble,  the  great  Alps  stood  up  against  the  blue, — not 

*  Bernardo  Bergonza,  of  the  Hotel  d'ltalie,  Arona,  in  whom  any 
friend  of  mine  will  find  a  glad  charioteer  ;  and  they  cannot  anywhere 
find  an  abler  or  honester  one. 


X.    *  THIRTY    YEARS    SINCE.'  159 

wholly  clear,  but  clasped  and  entwined  with  translucent 
folds  of  mist,  traceable,  but  no  more  traceable,  than  the 
thinnest  veil  drawn  over  St.  Catherine's  or  the  Virgin's 
hair  by  Lippi  or  Luini ;  and  rising  as  they  were  with- 
drawn from  such  investiture,  into  faint  oriflammes,  as  if 
borne  by  an  angel  host  far  distant;  the  peaks  themselves 
strewn  with  strange  light,  by  snow  fallen  but  that  mo- 
ment,— the  glory  shed  upon  them  as  the  veil  fled  ;  — and 
intermittent  waves  of  still  gaining  seas  of  light  increas- 
ing upon  them,  as  if  on  the  first  day  of  creation. 

"  A  present,  vous  pouvez  voir  1'hotel  sur  le  Bell  Alp, 
bati  par  Monsieur  Tyndall." 

The  voice  was  the  voice  of  the  driver  of  the  supple- 
mentary pair  of  horses  from  Brieg,  who,  just  dismissed 
by  Bernardo,  had  been  for  some  minutes  considering  how 
he  could  best  recommend  himself  to  me  for  an  extra 
franc. 

I  not  instantly  appearing  favourably  stirred  by  this  in- 
formation, he  went  on  with  increased  emphasis,  "  Mon- 
sieur \Qprofesseur  Tyndall." 

The  poor  fellow  lost  his  bonnemain  by  it  altogether — 
not  out  of  any  deliberate  spite  of  mine ;  but  because,  at 
this  second  interruption,  I  looked  at  him,  with  an  ex- 
pression (as  I  suppose)  so  little  calculated  to  encourage 
his  hopes  of  my  generosity  that  he  gave  the  matter  up  in 
a  moment,  and  turned  away,  with  his  horses,  down  the 
hill ; — I  partly  not  caring  to  be  further  disturbed, 
and  being  besides  too  SiOw — as  I  always  am  in  cases 


160  DEUCALION. 

where  presence  of  mind  is  needful — in  calling  him  back 
again. 

11.  For,    indeed,   fhe   confusion    into   which   he   had 
thrown  my  thoughts  was  all  the  more  perfect  and  dia- 
bolic, because  it  consisted  mainly  in  the  stirring   up  of 
every  particle  of  personal  vanity  and  mean  spirit  of  con- 
tention which  could  be  concentrated  in  one  blot  of  pure 
black  ink,  to  be  dropped  into  the  midst  of  my  aerial  vision. 

Finding  it  totally  impossible  to  look  at  the  Alps  any 
more,  for  the  moment,  I  got  out  of  the  carriage,  sent  it 
on  to  the  Simplon  village ;  and  began  climbing,  to  re- 
cover my  feelings  and  wits,  among  the  mossy  knolls  above 
the  convent. 

They  were  drenched  with  the  just  past  rain;  glittering 
now  in  perfect  sunshine,  and  themselves  enriched  by 
autumn  into  wreaths  of  responding  gold. 

The  vast  hospice  stood  desolate  in  the  hollow  behind 
them ;  the  first  time  I  had  ever  passed  it  with  no  welcome 
from  either  monk,  or  dog.  Blank  as  the  fields  of  snow 
above,  stood  now  the  useless  walls  ;  and  for  the  first  time, 
unredeemed  by  association  ;  only  the  thin  iron  cross  in 
the  centre  of  the  roof  remaining  to  say  that  this  had  once 
been  a  house  of  Christian  Hospitallers. 

12.  Desolate  this,  and  dead  the  office  of  this, — for  the 
present,  it  seems  ;  and  across  the  valley,  instead,  "  1'hotel 
sur  le  Bell  Alp,  bati  par  Monsieur  Tyndall,"  no  nest  of 
dreamy  monks,  but  of  philosophically  peripatetic  or  peri- 
saltatory  i  puces  des  glaces.' 


x.  'THIRTY  YEARS  SINCE.'  161 

For,  on  the  whole,  that  is  indeed  the  dramatic  aspect 
and  relation  of  them  to  the  glaciers ;  little  jumping  black 
things,  who  appear,  under  the  photographic  microscope, 
active  on  the  ice- waves,  or  even  inside  of  them  ; — giving 
to  most  of  the  great  views  of  the  Alps,  in  the  windows  at 
Geneva,  a  more  or  less  animatedly  punctuate  and  puli- 
carious  character. 

Such  their  dramatic  and  picturesque  function,  to  any 
one  with  clear  eyes  ;  their  intellectual  function,  however, 
being  more  important,  and  comparable  rather  to  a  sym- 
metrical succession  of  dirt-bands, — each  making  the  ice 
more  invisible  than  the  last ;  for  indeed,  here,  in  1876, 
are  published,  with  great  care  and  expense,  such  a  quan- 
tity of  accumulated  rubbish  of  past  dejection,  and  mo 
raine  of  finely  triturated  mistake,  clogging  together  gi- 
gantic heaped  blocks  of  far- travelled  blunder, — as  it 
takes  away  one's  breath  to  approach  the  shadow  of. 

13.  The  first  in  magnitude,  as  in  origin,  of  these  long- 
sustained  stupidities, — the  pierre-a-Bot,  or  Frog-stone,  par 
excellence,  of  the  Neuchatel  clique, — is  Charpentier's 
Dilatation  Theory,  revived  by  M.  Yiolet,  not  now  as  a 
theory,  but  an  assured  principle ! — without,  however, 
naming  Charpentier  as  the  author  of  it ;  and  of  course 
without  having  read  a  word  of  Forbes's  demolition  of  it. 
The  essential  work  of  Deucalion  is  construction,  not  de- 
molition ;  but  when  an  avalanche  of  old  rubbish  is  shot 
in  our  way,  I  must,  whether  I  would  or  no,  clear  it  aside 
before  I  can  go  on.  I  suppose  myself  speaking  to  my 


162  DEUCALION. 

Sheffield  men  ;  and  shall  put  so  much  as  they  need  know 
of  these  logs  upon  the  line,  as  briefly  as  possible,  before 
them. 

14.  There  are  three  theories  extant,  concerning  glacier- 
motion,  among  the  gentlemen  who  live  at  the  intellectual 
'  Hotel  des  Neuchatelois.'  These  are  specifically  known 
as  the  Sliding, — Dilatation, — and  Regelation,  theories. 

When  snow  lies  deep  on  a  sloping  roof,  and  is  not  sup- 
ported below  by  any  cornice  or  gutter,  you  know  that 
when  it  thaws,  and  the  sun  has  warmed  it  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  whole  mass  slides  off  into  the  street. 

That  is  the  way  the  scientific  persons  who  hold  the 
'  Sliding  theory,'  suppose  glaciers  to  move.  They  assume, 
therefore,  two  things  more ;  namely,  first  that  all  moun- 
tains are  as  smooth  as  house-roofs ;  and,  secondly,  that  a 
piece  of  ice  a  mile  long  and  three  or  four  hundred  feet 
deep  will  slide  gently,  though  a  piece  a  foot  deep  and  a 
yard  long  slides  fast, — in  other  words,  that  a  paving-stone 
will  slide  fast  on  another  paving-stone,  but  the  Rossberg 
fall  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  inches  a  day. 

There  is  another  form  of  the  sliding  theory,  which  is 
that  glaciers  slide  in  little  bits,  one  at  a  time;  or,  for 
example,  that  if  you  put  a  railway  train  on  an  incline, 
with  loose  fastening  to  the  carriages,  the  first  carriage 
will  slide  first,  as  far  as  it  can  go,  and  then  stop ;  then 
the  second  start,  and  catch  it  up,  and  wait  for  the  third ; 
and  so  on,  till  when  the  last  has  come  up,  the  first  will 
start  again. 


X.    *  THIRTY   YEAB8    SINCE.'  16<T 

Having  once  for  all  sufficiently  explained  the  '  Sliding 
theory '  to  you,  I  shall  not  trouble  myself  any  more  in 
Deucalion  about  it. 

15.  The  next  theory  is  the   Dilatation   theory.      The 
scientific   persons   who    hold   that  theory   suppose    that 
whenever  a  shower  of  rain  falls  on  a  glacier,  the  said  rain 
freezes  inside  of  it ;  and  that  the  glacier  being  thereby 
made  bigger,  stretches  itself  uniformly  in  one  direction, 
and  never  in  any  other ;  also  that,  although  it  can  only 
be  thus  expanded  in  cold  and  wet  weather,  such  expansion 
is  the  reason  that  it  always  goes  fastest  in  hot  and  dry 
weather. 

There  is  another  form  of  the  Dilatation  theory,  which 
is  that  the  glacier  expands  by  freezing  its  own  meltings. 

16.  Having  thus  sufficiently  explained  the  Dilatation 
theory  to  you,  I  shall  not  trouble  myself  in  Deucalion 
farther  about  it ;  noticing  only,  in  bidding  it  goodbye, 
the  curious  want  of  power  in  scientific  men,  when  once 
they  get  hold  of  a  false  notion,  to  perceive  the  common- 
est analogies  implying  its   correction.     One  would  have 
thought  that,  with  their  thermometer  in    their  hand  to 
measure  congelation  with,  and  the  idea  of  expansion  in 
their  head,  the  analogy  between  the  tube  of  the  thermom- 
eter, and  a  glacier  channel,  and  the  ball  of  the  thermom- 
eter, and  a  glacier  reservoir,  might,  some  sunshiny  day, 
have  climbed  across  the  muddily-fissured  glacier  of  their 
wits : — and  all  the  quicker,  that  their  much-studied  Mer 
de  Glace  bears  to  the  great  reservoirs  of  ice  above  it  pre- 


164  DEUCALION. 

cisely  the  relation  of  a  very  narrow  tube  to  a  very  large 
ball.  The  vast  ( instrument'  seems  actually  to  have  been 
constructed  by  Nature,  to  show  to  the  dullest  of  savants 
the  difference  between  the  steady  current  of  flux  through 
a  channel  of  drainage,  and  the  oscillatory  vivacity  of 
expansion  which  they  constructed  their  own  tubular  appa- 
ratus to  obtain ! 

17.  The  last  popular  theory  concerning  glaciers  is  the 
Regelation  theory.     The  scientific  persons  who  hold  that 
theory,  suppose  that  a  glacier  advances  by  breaking  itself 
spontaneously  into  small  pieces ;  and  then  spontaneously 
sticking  the  pieces  together  again  ; — that  it  becomes  con- 
tinually larger  by  a  repetition  of  this  operation,  and  that 
the  enlargement  (as  assumed  also  by  the  gentlemen  of 
the  Dilatation  party),  can  only  take  place  downwards. 

You  may  best  conceive  the  gist  of  the  Regelation 
theory  by  considering  the  parallel  statement,  which  you 
may  make  to  your  scientific  young  people,  that  if  they 
put  a  large  piece  of  barleysugar  on  the  staircase  landing, 
it  will  walk  downstairs  by  alternately  cracking  and  mend- 
ing itself. 

I  shall  not  trouble  myself  farther,  in  Deucalion,  about 
the  Regelation  theory. 

18.  M.  Violet- le-Duc,  indeed,  appears  to  have  written 
his  book  without  even  having  heard  of  it ;  but  he  makes 
most  dextrous  use  of  the  two  others,  fighting,  as  it  were, 
at  once  with  sword  and  dagger  ;  and  making  his  glaciers 
move  on  the  Sliding  theory  when  the  ground  is  steep,  and 


X.    '  THIRTY   YEAE8    SINCE.'  165 

on  the  Dilatation  theory  when  it  is  level.  The  woodcuts 
at  pages  65,  66,  in  which  a  glacier  is  represented  dilating 
itself  up  a  number  of  hills  and  down  again,  and  that  at 
page  99,  in  which  it  defers  a  line  of  boulders,  which  by 
unexplained  supernatural  power  have  been  deposited  all 
across  it,  into  moraines  at  its  side,  cannot  but  remain  tri- 
umphant among  monuments  of  scientific  error, — bestow- 
ing on  their  author  a  kind  of  St.  Simeon-Stylitic  pre-emi- 
nence of  immortality  in  the  Paradise  of  Fools. 

19.  Why  I  stopped  first  at  page  58  of  this  singular  vol- 
ume, I  see  there  is  no  room  to  tell  in  this  number  of  Deu- 
calion ;  still  less  to  note  the  interesting  repetitions  by  M. 
Violet-le-Duc  of  the  Tyndall-Agassiz  demonstration  that 
Forbes'  assertion  of  the  plasticity  of  ice  in  large  pieces,  is 
now  untenable,  by  reason  of  the  more  recent  discovery  of 
its  plasticity  in  little  ones.      I  have  just  space,  however, 
for  a  little  woodcut  from  the  '  Glaciers  of  the  Alps,'  (or 
'  Forms  of  Water,'  I  forget  which,  and  it  is  no  matter,) 
in  final  illustration  of  the  Tyndall-Agassiz  quality  of  wit. 

20.  Fig.  5,  A,  is  Professor  Tyndall's  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  sunshine  on  a  piece  of  glacier,'  originally  of  the 
form  shown  by  the  dotted  line,  and   reduced  by  solar 
power  on  the  south  side   to  the  beautifully  delineated 
wave  in  the  shape  of  a  wedge. 

It  never  occurred  to  the  scientific  author  that  the  sun- 
shine would  melt  some  of  the  top,  as  well  as  of  the  side, 
of  his  parallelepiped  ;  nor  that,  during  the  process,  even 
on  the  shady  side  of  it,  some  melting  would  take  place  in 


166 


DEUCALION. 


the  summer  air.  The  figure  at  B  represents  three  stages 
of  the  diminution  which  would  really  take  place,  allow- 
ing for  these  other  sornewhat  important  conditions  of  the 


PIG.  5. 

question ;  and  it  shows,  what  may  farther  interest  the 
ordinary  observer,  how  rectangular  portions  of  ice,  origin- 
ally produced  merely  by  fissure  in  its  horizontal  mass, 
may  be  gradually  reduced  into  sharp,  axe-edged  ridges, 
having  every  appearance  of  splintery  and  vitreous  frac- 
ture. In  next  Deucalion  I  hope  to  give  at  last  some 
account  of  my  experiments  on  gelatinous  fracture,  made 
in  the  delightful  laboratory  of  my  friend's  kitchen,  with 
the  aid  of  her  infinitely  conceding,  and  patiently  collabor- 
ating, cook. 


CHAPTER  XL 

OF   SILICA  IN  LAVAS. 

1.  THE  rocks  through  whose  vast  range,  as  stated  in  the 
ninth  chapter,  our  at  first  well-founded  knowledge  of 
their  igneous  origin  gradually  becomes  dim,  and  fades 
into  theory,  may  be  logically  divided  into  these  four 
following  groups. 

1.  True  lavas.     Substances  which   have  been   rapidly 
cooled  from  fusion  into  homogeneous  masses,  showing  no 
clear  traces  of  crystallization. 

II.  Basalts.*     Rocks  in  which,  without  distinct  separa- 
tion of  their  elements,  a  disposition  towards  crystalline 
structure  manifests  itself. 

III.  Porphyries.     Rocks  in  which  one  or  more  mineral 
elements  separate  themselves  in  crystalline  form  from  a 
homogeneous  paste. 

IY.  Granites.  Rocks  in  which  all  their  elements  have 
taken  crystalline  form. 

2.  These,  I  say,  are  logical  divisions,  very  easily  tenable. 
But  Nature  laughs  at  logic,  and  in  her  infinite  imagina- 

*  I  use  this  word  as  on  the  whole  the  best  for  the  vast  class  of  rocks 
I  wish  to  include ;  but  without  any  reference  to  columnar  desiccation, 
I  consider,  in  this  arrangement,  only  internal  structure. 


168  DEUCALION. 

tion  of  rocks,  defies  all  Kosmos,  except  the  mighty  one 
which  we,  her  poor  puppets,  shall  never  discern.  Our 
logic  will  help  us  but  a  little  way  ; — so  far,  however,  we 
will  take  its  help. 

3.  And  first,  therefore,  let  us  ask  what  questions  im- 
peratively need   answer,   concerning  indisputable   lavas, 
seen  by  living  human  eyes  to  flow  incandescent  out  of  the 
earth,  and  thereon  to  cool  into  ghastly  slags. 

On  these  I  have  practically  burnt  the  soles  of  my  boots, 
and  in  their  hollows  have  practically  roasted  eggs ;  and  in 
the  lee  of  them,  have  been  wellnigh  choked  with  their 
stench ;  and  can  positively  testify  respecting  them,  that 
they  were  in  many  parts  once  fluid  under  power  of  fire, 
in  a  very  fine  and  soft  flux  ;  and  did  congeal  out  of  that 
state  into  ropy  or  cellular  masses,  variously  tormented  and 
kneaded  by  explosive  gas  ;  or  pinched  into  tortuous  ten- 
sion, as  by  diabolic  tongs ;  and  are  so  finally  left  by  the 
powers  of  Hell,  to  submit  themselves  to  the  powers  of 
Heaven,  in  black  or  brown  masses  of  adamantine  sponge 
without  water,  and  horrible  honeycombs  without  honey, 
interlaid  between  drifted  banks  of  earthy  flood,  poured 
down  from  merciless  clouds  whose  rain  was  ashes. 

The  seas  that  now  beat  against  these,  have  shores  of 
black  sand ;  the  peasant,  whose  field  is  in  these,  ploughs 
with  his  foot,  and  the  wind  harrows. 

4.  Now  of  the  outsides  of  these  lava  streams,  and  unal- 
tered volcanic  ashes,  I  know  the  look  well  enough ;  and 
could  supply  Sheffield  with  any  quantity  of  characteristic 


TJKIV  ;  v 

\^Uf0^^ 

XI.    OF   SILICA   IK   LAVAS.   ~  169 

specimens,  if  their  policy  and  trade  had  not  already 
pretty  nearly  buried  them,  and  great  part  of  England 
besides,  under  such  devil's  ware  of  their  own  production. 
But  of  the  insides  of  these  lava  streams,  and  of  the 
recognized  alterations  of  volcanic  tufa,  I  know  nothing. 
And,  accordingly,  I  want  authentic  answer  to  these  fol- 
lowing questions,  with  illustrative  specimens. 

5.  a.  In  lavas  which  have  been  historically  hot  to  per- 
fect fusion,  so  as  to  be  progressive,  on  steep  slopes,  in  the 
manner  of  iron  out  of  a  furnace  in  its  pig-furrows; — 
in  such  perfect  lavas,  I  say — what  kind  of  difference  is 
there  between  the  substance  at  the  surface  and  at  the 
extremest  known  depths,  after  cooling?  It  is  evident 
that  such  lavas  can  only  accumulate  to  great  depths  in 
infernal  pools  or  lakes.  Of  such  lakes,  which  are  the 
deepest  known  ?  and  of  those  known,  where  are  the  best 
sections  ?  I  want  for  Sheffield  a  series  of  specimens  of 
any  well-fused  lava  anywhere,  showing  the  gradations 
of  solidity  or  crystalline  consolidation,  from  the  outside 
to  extreme  depth. 

J.  On  lavas  which  have  not  been  historically  hot,  but 
of  which  there  is  no  possible  doubt  that  they  were  once 
fluent,  (in  the  air,)  to  the  above-stated  degree,  what 
changes  are  traceable,  produced,  irrespectively  of  atmos- 
pheric action,  by  lapse  of  time  ?  What  evidence  is 
there  that  lavas,  once  cool  to  their  centres,  can  sustain 
any  farther  crystalline  change,  or  re-arrangement  of 
mineral  structure  ? 


170  DEUCALION. 

c.  In  lavas  either  historically  or  indisputably  once 
fluent,  what  forms  of  ^ilica  are  found  ?  I  limit  myself 
at  present  to  the  investigation  of  volcanic  silica :  other 
geologists  will  in  time  take  up  other  minerals ;  but  I 
find  silica  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  for  my  life, 
or  at  least  for  what  may  be  left  of  it. 

Now  I  am  myself  rich  in  specimens  of  Hyalite,  and 
Auvergne  stellar  and  guttate  chalcedonies ;  but  I  have 
no  notion  whatever  how  these,  or  the  bitumen  associated 
with  them,  have  been  developed  ;  and  I  shall  be  most 
grateful  for  a  clear  account  of  their  locality, — possible 
or  probable  mode  of  production  in  that  locality, — and 
microscopic  structure.  Of  pure  quartz,  of  opal,  or  of 
agate,  I  have  no  specimen  connected  with  what  I  should 
call  a  truly  ' living'  lava;  one,  that  is  to  say,  which  lias 
simply  cooled  down  to  its  existing  form  from  the  fluid 
state ;  but  I  have  sent  to  the  Sheffield  Museum  a  piece 
of  Hyalite,  on  a  living  lava,  so  much  like  a  living  wasp's 
nest,  and  so  incredible  for  a  lava  at  all  to  the  general 
observer,  that  I  want  forthwith  some  help  from  my 
mineralogical  friends,  in  giving  account  of  it. 

6.  And  here  I  must,  for  a  paragraph  or  two,  pass  from 
definition  of  flinty  and  molten  minerals,  to  the  more 
difficult  definition  of  flinty  and  molten  hearts  ;  in  order 
to  explain  why  the  Hyalite  which  I  have  just  sent  to 
the  men  of  Sheffield,  for  their  first  type  of  volcanic 
silica,*  is  not  at  all  the  best  Hyalite  in  my  collection. 

*  I  give  the  description  of  these  seven  pieces  of  Hyalite  at  Sheffield, 


t 

XI.    OF  SILICA   IN   LAVAS.  171 

This  is  because  I  practically  find  a  certain  quantity  of 
selfishness  necessary  to  live  by ;  arid  having  no  manner 
of  saintly  nature  in  me,  but  only  that  of  ordinary  men, 
— (which  makes  me  all  the  hotter  in  temper  when  I 
can't  get  ordinary  men  either  to  see  what  I  know  they 
can  see  if  they  look,  or  do  what  I  know  they  can  do  if 
they  like,) — I  get  sometimes  weary  of  giving  things 
away,  letting  my  drawers  get  into  disorder,  and  losing 
the  powers  of  observation  and  thought  which  are  con- 
nected with  the  complacency  of  possession,  and  the 
pleasantness  of  order.  Whereupon  I  have  resolved  to 
bring  my  own  collection  within  narrow  limits ;  but  to 
constitute  it  resolutely  and  irrevocably  of  chosen  and 
curious  pieces,  for  my  own  pleasure ;  trusting  that  they 
may  be  afterwards  cared  for  by  some  of  the  persons 
who  knew  me,  when  I  myself  am  troubled  with  care  no 
more.* 

7.  This  piece  of  Hyalite,  however,  just  sent  to  Shef- 
field, though  not  my  best,  is  the  most  curiously  definite 
example  I  ever  saw.  It  is  on  a  bit  of  brown  lava,  which 
looks,  as  aforesaid,  a  little  way  off,  exactly  like  a  piece 

in  Deucalion,  because  their  description  is  necessary  to  explain  certain 
general  principles  of  arrangement  and  nomenclature. 

*  By  the  way,  this  selfish  collection  is  to  be  primarily  of  stones 
that  will  wash.  Of  petty  troubles,  none  are  more  fretting  than  the 
effect  of  dust  on  minerals  that  can  neither  be  washed  nor  brushed. 
Hence,  my  specialty  of  liking  for  silica,  felspar,  and  the  granitic  or 
gneissic  rocks. 


172  DEUCALION". 

of  a  wasp's  nest :  seen  closer,  the  cells  are  not  hexagonal, 
but  just  like  a  cast  of  a  spoonful  of  pease ;  the  spherical 
hollows  having  this  of  notable  in  them,  that  they  are 
only  as  close  to  each  other  as  they  can  be,  to  admit  of 
their  ~being  perfectly  round  :  therefore,  necessarily,  with 
little  spaces  of  solid  stone  between  them.  I  have  not 
the  slightest  notion  how  such  a  lava  can  be  produced. 
It  is  like  an  oolite  with  the  yolks  of  its  eggs  dropped 
out,  and  not  in  the  least  like  a  ductile  substance  churned 
into  foam  by  expansive  gas. 

8.  On  this  mysterious  bit  of  gaseous  wasp's  nest,  the 
Hyalite  seems  to  have  been  dropped,  like  drops  of  glass 
from  a  melting  glass  rod.  It  seems  to  touch  the  lava 
just  as  little  as  it  can  ;  sticks  at  once  on  the  edges  of  the 
cells,  and  laps  over  without  running  into,  much  less 
filling  them.  There  is  not  any  appearance,  and  I  think 
.no  possibility,  of  exudation  having  taken  place ;  the 
silica  cannot  but,  I  think,  have  been  deposited  ;  and  it 
is  stuck  together  just  as  if  it  had  fallen  in  drops,  which 
is  what  I  mean  by  calling  Hyalite  characteristically 
6  guttate ' ;  but  it  shows,  nevertheless,  a  tendency  to 
something  like  crystallization,  in  irregularities  of  surface 
like  those  of  glacier  ice,  or  the  kind  of  old  Venetian 
glass  which  is  rough,  and  apparently  of  lumps  coagu- 
lated. The  fracture  is  splendidly  vitreous, — the  sub- 
stance, mostly  quite  clear,  but  in  parts  white  and  opaque. 
9.  Now  although  no  other  specimen  that  I  have  yet 
seen  is  so  manifestly  guttate  as  this,  all  the  hyalites  I 


XI.    OF   SILICA   Itf   LAVAS.  173" 

know  agree  in  approximate  conditions;  and  associate 
themselves  with  forms  of  chalcedony  which  exactly  re- 
semble the  droppings  from  a  fine  wax  candle.  Such 
heated  waxen  effluences,  as  they  congeal,  will  be  found 
thrown  into  flattened  coats ;  and  the  chalcedonies  in 
question  on  the  under  surface  precisely  resemble  them ; 
while  on  the  upper  they  become  more  or  less  crystalline, 
and,  in  some  specimens,  form  lustrous  stellar  crystals  in 
the  centre. 

10.  Now,  observe,  this  chalcedony,  capable  of  crystal- 
lization,  differs   wholly   from    chalcedony   properly   so 
called,  which   may  indeed  be  covered  with  crystals,  but 
itself  remains   consistently   smooth  in    surface,  as  true 
Hyalite  does,  also. 

Not  to  be  teazed  with  too  many  classes,  however,  I 
shall  arrange  these  peculiar  chalcedonies  with  Hyalite; 
and,  accordingly,  I  send  next  to  the  Sheffield  Museum, 
to  follow  this  first  Hyalite,  an  example  of  the  transition 
from  Hyalite  to  dropped  chalcedony,  (i.  H.  2,)  being  an 
Indian  volcanic  chalcedony,  translucent,  aggregated  like 
Hyalite,  and  showing  a  concave  fracture  where  a  ball  of 
it  has  been  broken  out. 

11.  Next,  (i.  H.   3,)  pure   dropped    chalcedony.     I  do 
not  like  the  word  'dropped'  in  this  use, — so   that,  in- 
stead, I  shall  call  this  in  future  wax  chalcedony ;  then 
(i.  H.  4)  the  same  form,  with  crystalline  surface, — this  I 
shall  henceforward  call  sugar  chalcedony ;  and,  lastly,  the 
ordinary  stellar  form  of  Au vergne,  star  chalcedony  (i.  H.  5). 


174  DEUCALION. 

These  five  examples  are  typical,  and  perfect  in  their 
kind ;  next  to  them  (i.  H.  6)  I  place  a  wax  chalcedony 
formed  on  a  porous  rock,  (volcanic  ash  ?)  which  has  at 
the  surface  of  it  small  circular  concavities,  being  also 
so  irregularly  coagulate  throughout  that  it  suggests 
no  mode  of  deposition  whatever,  and  is  peculiar  in  this 
also,  that  it  is  thinner  in  the  centre  than  at  the  edges, 
and  that  no  vestige  of  its  substance  occurs  in  the  pores 
of  the  rock  it  overlies. 

Take  a  piece  of  porous  broken  brick,  drop  any  tal- 
lowy composition  over  four  or  five  inches  square  of  its 
surface,  to  the  depth  of  one-tenth  of  an  inch  ;  then  drop 
more  on  the  edges  till  you  have  a  rampart  round,  the 
third  of  an  inch  thick ;  and  you  will  have  some  likeness 
of  this  piece  of  stone  :  but  how  Nature  held  the  compo- 
sition in  her  fingers,  or  composed  it  to  be  held,  I  leave 
you  to  guess,  for  I  cannot. 

12.  Next  following,  I  place  the  most  singular  example 
of  all  (i.  H.  7).  The  chalcedony  in  i.  H.  6  is  apparently 
dropped  on  the  ashes,  and  of  irregular  thickness ;  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  how  it  was  dropped,  but  once  get 
Nature  to  hold  the  candle,  and  the  thing  is  done. 

But  here,  in  i.  H.  7,  it  is  no  longer  apparently  dropped, 
but  apparently  boiled !  It  rises  like  the  bubbles  of  a 
strongly  boiling  liquid  ; — but  not  from  a  liquid  mass ;  on 
the  contrary,  (except  in  three  places,  presently  to  be 
described,)  it  coats  the  volcanic  ash  in  perfectly  even 
thickness — a  quarter  of  an  inch,  and  no  more,  nor  less. 


XI.    OF  SILICA   Itf   LAVAS.  175 

everywhere,  over  a  space  five  inches  square !  and  the  ash, 
or  lava,  itself,  instead  of  being  porous  throughout  the 
mass,  with  the  silica  only  on  the  surface,  is  filled  with 
chalcedony  in  every  cavity  ! 

Now  this  specimen  completes  the  transitional  series 
from  hyalite  to  perfect  chalcedony ;  and  with  these 
seven  specimens,  in  order,  before  us,  we  can  define  some 
things,  and  question  of  others,  with  great  precision. 

13.  First,  observe  that  all  the  first  six  pieces  agree  in 
two  conditions, — varying,  and  coagulated,  thickness  of 
the  deposit.  But  the  seventh  has  the  remarkable  char- 
acter of  equal,  and  therefore  probably  crystalline,  deposi- 
tion everywhere. 

Secondly.  In  the  first  six  specimens,  though  the 
coagulations  are  more  or  less  rounded,  none  of  them  are 
regularly  spherical.  But  in  the  seventh,  though  the 
larger  bubbles  (so  to  call  them)  are  subdivided  into  many 
small  ones,  every  uninterrupted  piece  of  the  surface  is 
a  portion  of  a  sphere,  as  in  true  bubbles. 

Thirdly.  The  sugar  chalcedony,  i.  H.  4,  and  stellar 
chalcedony,  i.  H.  5,  show  perfect  power  of  assuming, 
under  favourable  conditions,  prismatic  crystalline  form. 
But  there  is  no  trace  of  such  tendency  in  the  first  three, 
or  last  two,  of  the  seven  examples.  Nor  has  there  ever, 
so  far  as  I  know,  been  found  prismatic  true  hyalite,  or 
prismatic  true  chalcedony. 

Therefore  we  have  here  essentially  three  different 
minerals,  passing  into  each  other,  it  is  true ;  but,  at  a 


176  DEUCALION. 

certain  point,  changing  their  natures  definitely,  so  that 
hyalite,  becoming  wax  chalcedony,  gains  the  power  of 
prismatic  crystallization  ;  and  wax  chalcedony,  becoming 
true  chalcedony,  loses  it  again  ! 

And  now  I  must  pause,  to  explain  rightly  this  term 
'prismatic,'  and  others  which  are  now  in  use,  or  which 
are  to  be  used,  in  St.  George's  schools,  in  describing 
crystallization. 

14:.  A  prism,  (the  sawn  thing,)  in  Newton's  use  of  the 
word,  is  a  triangular  pillar  with  flat  top  and  bottom.  Put- 
ting two  or  more  of  these  together,  we  can  make  pillars 
of  any  number  of  plane  sides,  in  any  regular  or  irregular 
shape.  Crystals,  therefore,  which  are  columnar,  and  thick 
enough  to  be  distinctly  seen,  are  called  '  prismatic.' 

2.  But  crystals  which  are  columnar,  and  so  delicate  that 

they  look  like  needles,  are  called  '  acicular,'  from 
acus,  a  needle. 

3.  When  such  crystals  become  so  fine  that  they  look  like 

hair  or  down,  and  lie  in  confused  directions,  the 
mineral  composed  of  them  is  called  'plumose.' 

4.  And  when  they  adhere  together  closely  by  their  sides, 

the  mineral  is  called  '  fibrous.' 

5.  When  a  crystal  is  flattened  by  the  extension  of  two  of 

its  planes,  so  as  to  look  like  a  board,  it  is  called  'tab- 
ular' ;  but  people  don't  call  it  a  '  tabula.' 

6.  But  when  such  a  board  becomes  very  thin,  it  is  called  a 

'lamina,'  and  the  mineral  composed  of  many  such 
plates,  laminated. 


XT.    OF   SILICA   IK   LAVAS.  177 

7.  When  laminae  are  so  thin  that,  joining  with  others 

equally  so,  they  form   fine   leaves,  the  mineral   is 
<  foliate.' 

8.  And  when  these  leaves  are  capable  of  perpetual  sub- 

division, the  mineral  is  c  micaceous.' 

15.  Now,  so  far  as  I  know  their  works,  mineralogists 
hitherto  have  never  attempted  to  show  cause  why  some 
minerals  rejoice  in  longitude,  others  in  latitude,  and  others 
in  platitude.  They  indicate  to  their  own  satisfaction, — 
that  is  to  say,  in  a  manner  totally  incomprehensible  by 
the  public, — all  the  modes  of  expatiation  possible  to  the 
mineral,  by  cardinal  points  on  a  sphere :  but  why  a  crys- 
tal of  ruby  likes  to  be  short  and  fat,  and  a  crystal  of  ru- 
tile,  long  and  lean ;  why  amianth  should  bind  itself  into 
bundles  of  threads,  cuprite  weave  itself  into  tissues,  and 
silver  braid  itself  into  nests, — the  use,  in  fact,  that  any 
mineral  makes  of  its  opportunities,  and  the  cultivation 
which  it  gives  to  its  faculties, — of  all  this,  my  minera- 
logical  authorities  tell  me  nothing.  Industry,  indeed,  is 
theirs  to  a  quite  infinite  degree,  in  pounding,  decocting, 
weighing,  measuring,  but  they  have  remained  just  as  un- 
conscious as  vivisecting  physicians  that  all  this  was  only 
the  anatomy  of  dust, — not  its  history. 

Bat  here  at  last,  in  Cumberland,  I  find  a  friend,  Mr. 
Clifton  Ward,  able  and  willing  to  begin  some  true  history 
of  mineral  substance,  and  far  advanced  already  in  prelim- 
inary discovery ;  and  in  answer  to  my  request  for  help, 

taking  up  this  first  hyalitic  problem,  he  has  sent  me  the 
12 


178  DEUCALION. 

drawings — engraved,  I  regret  to  say,  with  little  justice  to 
their  delicacy ;  * — in  Plate  Y. 

16.  This  plate  represents,  in  Figure  1,  the  varieties  of 
structure  in  an  inch  vertical  section  of  a  lake-agate ;  and 
in  Figures  2,  3,  4,  and  5,  still  farther  magnified  portions 
of  the  layers  so  numbered  in  Figure  1. 

Figures  6  to  9  represent  the  structure  and  effect  of  pol- 
arized light  in  a  lake-agate  of  more  distinctly  crystalline 
structure ;  and  Figures  10  to  13,  the  orbicular  concre- 
tions of  volcanic  Indian  chalcedony.  But  before  entering 
farther  on  the  description  of  these  definitely  concretion- 
ary bands,  I  think  it  will  be  desirable  to  take  note  of  some 
facts  regarding  the  larger  bands  of  our  Westmoreland 
mountains,  which  become  to  me,  the  more  I  climb  them, 
mysterious  to  a  point  scarcely  tolerable ;  and  only  the  more 
so,  in  consequence  of  their  recent  more  accurate  survey. 

17.  Leaving  their  pebbles,  therefore,  for  a  little  while, 
I  will  ask  my  readers  to  think  over  some  of  the  condi- 
tions of  their  crags  and  pools,  explained  as  best  I  could, 
in  the  following  lecture,  to  the  Literary  and  Scientific 
Society  of  the  town  of  Kendal.     For  indeed,  beneath  the 
evermore  blessed  Kendal-green  of  their  sweet  meadows 
and  moors,  the  secrets  of  hill-structure  remain,  for  all  the 
work  spent  on  them,  in  colourless  darkness;  and  indeed, 
"  So  dark,  Hal,  that  thou  could'st  not  see  thine  hand." 

*  But  not  by  my  fault,  for  I  told  the  engraver  to  do  his  best ;  and 
took  more  trouble  with  the  plate  than  with  any  of  my  own. 


Plate  V. 
STRUCTURE  OF  LAKE  AGATE. 


V 

XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STKEAMLETS.  179 


CHAPTER  XII. 

YEWDALE    AND    ITS    STREAMLETS. 

Lecture  delivered  before  the  Members  of  the  Literary  and  Scientific  Insti- 
tution, Kendal,  1st  October,  1877. 

1.  I  FEAKthat  some  of  my  hearers  may  think  an  apolo- 
gy due  to  them  for  having  brought,  on  the  first  occasion 
of  my  being  honoured  by  their  audience,  a  subject  before 
them  which  they  may  suppose  unconnected  with  my  own 
special  work,  past  or  present.  But  the  truth  is,  I  knew 
mountains  long  before  I  knew  pictures  ;  and  these  moun- 
tains of  yours,  before  any  other  mountains.  From  this 
town,  of  Kendal,  I  went  out,  a  child,  to  the  first  joyful 
excursions  among  the  Cumberland  lakes,  which  formed 
my  love  of  landscape  and  of  painting :  and  now,  being  an 
old  man,  I  find  myself  more  and  more  glad  to  return — 
and  pray  you  to-night  to  return  with  me — from  shadows 
to  the  reality. 

I  do  not,  however,  believe  that  one  in  a  hundred  of  our 
youth,  or  of  our  educated  classes,  out  of  directly  scientific 
circles,  take  any  real  interest  in  geology.  And  for  my 
own  part,  I  do  not  wonder, — for  it  seems  to  me  that  geol- 
ogy tells  us  nothing  really  interesting.  It  tells  us  much 
about  a  world  that  once  was.  But,  for  my  part,  a  world 


180  DEUCALION". 

that  only  was,  is  as  little  interesting  as  a  world  that  only  is 
to  be.  I  no  more  care  to  hear  of  the  forms  of  mountains 
that  crumbled  away  a  million  of  years  ago  to  leave  room 
for  the  town  of  Kendal,  than  of  forms  of  mountains  that 
some  future  day  may  swallow  up  the  town  of  Kendal  in 
the  cracks  of  them.  I  am  only  interested — so  ignoble  and 
unspeculative  is  my  disposition — in  knowing  how  God 
made  the  Castle  Hill  of  Kendal,  for  the  Baron  of  it  to 
build  on,  and  how  he  brought  the  Kent  through  the  dale 
of  it,  for  its  people  and  flocks  to  drink  of. 

2.  And  these  things,  if  you  think  of  them,  you  will 
find  are  precisely  what  the  geologists  cannot  tell  you. 
They  never  trouble  themselves  about  matters  so  recent, 
or  so  visible ;  and  while  you  may  always  obtain  the  most 
satisfactory  information  from  them  respecting  the  con- 
gelation of  the  whole  globe  out  of  gas,  or  the  direction 
of  it  in  space,  there  is  really  not  one  who  can  explain 
to  you  the  making  of  a  pebble,  or  the  running  of  a 
rivulet. 

May  I,  however,  before  pursuing  my  poor  little  in- 
quiry into  these  trifling  matters,  congratulate  those  mem- 
bers of  my  audience  who  delight  more  in  literature  than 
science,  on  the  possession,  not  only  of  dales  in  reality, 
but  of  dales  in  name.  Consider,  for  an  instant  or  two, 
how  much  is  involved,  how  much  indicated,  by  our  pos- 
session in  English  of  the  six  quite  distinct  words — vale, 
valley,  dale,  dell,  glen,  and  dingle ; — consider  the  grada- 
tions of  character  in  scene,  and  fineness  of  observation  in 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  181 

the  inhabitants,  implied  by  that  sixfoil  cluster  of  words; 
as  compared  to  the  simple  '  thai '  of  the  Germans,  '  valle ' 
of  the  Italians,  and  *  vallee'  of  the  French,  shortening  into 
'val'  merely  for  ease  of  pronunciation,  but  having  no 
variety  of  sense  whatever ;  so  that,  supposing  I  want  to 
translate,  for  the  benefit  of  an  Italian  friend,  Words- 
worth's '  Reverie  of  Poor  Susan,'  and  come  to  "  Green 
pastures  she  views  in  the  midst  of  the  dale,"  and  look  for 
4  dale '  in  my  Italian  dictionary,  I  find  "  valle  lunga  e 
stretta  tra  poggi  alti,"  and  can  only  convey  Mr.  Words- 
worth's meaning  to  my  Italian  listener  by  telling  him 
that  "  la  povera  Susanna  vede  verdi  prati,  nel  mezzo  della 
valle  lunga  e  stretta  tra  poggi  alti"!  It  is  worth  while, 
both  for  geological  and  literary  reasons,  to  trace  the  es- 
sential differences  in  the  meaning  and  proper  use  of  these 
words. 

3.  '  Yale '  signifies  a  large  extent  of  level  land,  sur- 
rounded by  hills,  or  nearly  so  ;  as  the  Yale  of  the  White 
Horse,  or  Yale  of  Severn.  The  level  extent  is  necessary 
to  the  idea;  while  the  next  word,  'valley,'  means  a  large 
hollow  among  hills,  in  which  there  is  little  level  ground, 
or  none.  Next  comes  '  dale,'  which  signifies  properly  a 
tract  of  level  land  on  the  borders  of  a  stream,  continued 
for  so  great  a  distance  as  to  make  it  a  district  of  import- 
ance as  a  part  of  the  inhabited  country ;  as  Ennerdale, 
Langdale,  Liddesdale.  'Dell'  is  to  dale,  what  valley  is 
to  vale ;  and  implies  that  there  is  scarcely  any  level  land 
beside  the  stream.  l  Dingle '  is  such  a  recess  or  dell 


182  DEUCALION-. 

clothed  with  wood;*  and  'glen'  one  varied  with  rocks. 
The  term  '  ravine,'  a  ^'ent  chasm  among  rocks,  has  its 
necessary  parallel  in  other  languages. 

Our  richness  of  expression  in  these  particulars  may  be 
traced  to  the  refinement  of  our  country  life,  chiefly  since 
the  fifteenth  century;  and  to  the  poetry  founded  on  the 
ancient  character  of  the  Border  peasantry ;  mingling 
agricultural  with  shepherd  life  in  almost  equal  measure. 

I  am  about  to  endeavour,  then,  to  lay  before  you  this 
evening  the  geological  laws  which  have  produced  the 
6  dale,'  properly  so  called,  of  which  I  take — for  a  sweet 
and  near  example — the  green  piece  of  meadow  land 
through  which  flows,  into  Coniston  Water,  the  brook 
that  chiefly  feeds  it. 

4.  And  now,  before  going  farther,  let  me  at  once  vin- 
dicate myself  from  the  blame  of  not  doing  full  justice  to 
the  earnest  continuance  of  labour,  and  excellent  subtlety 
of  investigation,  by  which  Mr.  Aveline  and  Mr.  Clifton 
Ward  have  presented  you  with  the  marvellous  maps  and 
sections  of  this  district,  now  in  course  of  publication  in 
the  Geological  Survey.  Especially  let  me,  in  the  strong- 
est terms  of  grateful  admiration,  refer  to  the  results 
which  have  been  obtained  by  the  microscopic  observa- 

*  Connected  partly,  I  doubt  not,  with  Ingle,  or  Inglewood, — brush- 
wood to  burn,  (hence  Justice  Inglewood  in  'Rob  Hoy').  I  have 
still  omitted  'clough,'  or  cleugh,  given  by  Johnson  in  relation  to 
'  dingle,'  and  constant  in  Scott,  from  '  Gander-cleugh '  to  '  Buc(k)- 
cleugh.' 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND    ITS   STREAMLETS.  183 

tions  of  minerals  instituted  by  Mi*.  Sorby,  and  carried  out 
indefatigably  by  Mr.  Clifton  Ward,  forming  tlie  first 
sound  foundations  laid  for  the  solution  of  the  most 
secret  problems  of  geology. 

5.  But  while  I  make  this  most  sincere  acknowledg- 
ment of  what  has  been  done  by  these  gentlemen,  and  by 
their  brother  geologists  in  the  higher  paths  of  science,  I 
must  yet  in  all  humility  lament  that  this  vast  fund  of 
gathered  knowledge  is  every  bit  of  it,  hitherto,  beyond 
you  and  me.     Dealing  only  with  infinitude  of  space  and 
remoteness  of  time,  it  leaves  us  as  ignorant  as  ever  we 
were,  or  perhaps,  in  fancying  ourselves  wiser,  even  more 
ignorant,  of  the  things  that  are  near  us  and  around, — of 
the  brooks  that  sing  to  us,  the  rocks  that  guard  us,  and 
the  fields  that  feed. 

6.  To-night,  therefore,  I  am  here   for  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  ask  the  simplest  questions ;  and  to  win  your 
interest,  if  it  may  be,  in   pleading  with  our  geological 
teachers  for  the  answers  which  as  yet  they  disdain  to  give. 

Here,  in  your  long  winding  dale  of  the  Kent, — and 
over  the  hills,  in  my  little  nested  dale  of  the  Yew, — will 
you  ask  the  geologist,  with  me,  to  tell  us  how  their 
pleasant  depth  was  opened  for  us,  and  their  lovely  bor- 
ders built.  For,  as  yet,  this  is  all  that  we  are  told  con- 
cerning them,  by  accumulated  evidence  of  geology,  as 
collected  in  this  summary  at  the  end  of  the  first  part 
of  Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  volume  on  the  geology  of  the 
lakes : — 


184.  DEUCALION. 

"  The  most  ancient  geologic  records  in  the  district 
indicate  marine  conditions  with  a  probable  proximity  of 
land.  Submarine  volcanoes  broke  out  during  the  close 
of  this  period,  followed  by  an  elevation  of  land,  with 
continued  volcanic  eruptions,  of  which  perhaps  the  pres- 
ent site  of  Keswick  was  one  of  the  chief  centres. 
Depression  of  the  volcanic  district  then  ensued  beneath 
the  sea,  with  the  probable  cessation  of  volcanic  activity  ; 
much  denudation  was  effected  ;  another  slight  volcanic 
outburst  accompanied  the  formation  of  the  Coniston 
Limestone,  and  then  the  old  deposits  of  Skiddaw  Slate 
and  volcanic  material  were  buried  thousands  of  feet  deep 
beneath  strata  formed  in  an  upper  Silurian  sea.  Next 
followed  an  immensely  long  period  of  elevation,  accom- 
panied by  disturbance  and  alteration  of  the  rocks,  and  by 
a  prodigious  amount  of  marine  and  atmospheric  denuda- 
tion. A  subsequent  depression,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
marked  the  coming  on  of  the  Carboniferous  epoch,  her- 
alded however,  in  all  likelihood,  by  a  period  of  more 
or  less  intense  cold.  Then  for  succeeding  ages,  the  dis- 
trict elevated  high  above  the  surrounding  seas  of  later 
times,  underwent  that  large  amount  of  sub-aerial  denuda- 
tion which  has  resulted  in  the  formation  of  our  beautiful 
English  Lake-country." 

7.  The  only  sentence  in  this  passage  of  the  smallest 
service  to  us,  at  present,  is  that  stating  the  large  amount 
of  '  sub-aerial  denudation '  which  formed  our  beautiful 
country. 


XII.    YEWDALE    AKD    ITS    STREAMLETS.  185 

Putting  the  geological  language  into  simple  English, 
that  means  that  your  dales  and  hills  were  produced  by 
being  *  rubbed  down  in  the  open  air,' — rubbed  down, 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  manner  in  which  people  are  rubbed 
down  after  a  Turkish  bath,  so  as  to  have  a  good  deal  of 
their  skin  taken  off  them.  But  observe,  it.  would  be 
just  as  rational  to  say  that  the  beauty  of  the  human  form 
was  owing  to  the  immemorial  and  continual  use  of  the 
flesh-brush,  as  that  we  owe  the  beauty  of  our  mountains 
to  the  mere  fact  of  their  having  been  rubbed  away.  No 
quantity  of  stripping  or  denuding  will  give  beauty  when 
there  is  none  to  denude  ; — you  cannot  rub  a  statue  out 
of  a  sandbank,  or  carve  the  Elgin  frieze  with  rottenstone 
for  a  chisel,  and  chance  to  drive  it. 

8.  We  have  to  ask  then,  first,  what  material  there  was 
here  to  carve  ;  and  then  what  sort  of  chisels,  and  in  what 
workman's  hand,  were  used  to  produce  this  large  piece 
of  precious  chasing  or   embossed  work,  which  we  call 
Cumberland  and  Weste-more-land. 

I  think  we  shall  get  at  our  subject  more  clearly,  how- 
ever, by  taking  a  somewhat  wider  view  of  it  than  our 
own  dales  permit,  and  considering  what  *  sub-aerial  denu- 
dation '  means,  on  the  surface  of  the  world,  instead  of  in 
"Westmoreland  only. 

9.  Broadly,  therefore,  we  have,  forming  a  great  part 
of  that  surface,  vast  plains  or  steppes,  like  the  levels  of 
France,  and  lowlands'  of  England,  and  prairies  of  Amer- 
ica, composed  mostly  of  horizontal  beds  of  soft  stone  or 


186  DEUCALIOK. 

gravel.  Nobody  in  general  talks  of  these  having  been 
rubbed  down  ;  so  little,  indeed,  that  I  really  do  not  my- 
self know  what  the  nations  of  geologists  are  on  the  mat- 
ter. They  tell  me  that  some  four-and-twenty  thousand 
feet  or  so  of  slate — say,  four  miles  thick  of  slate — must 
have  been  taken  off  the  top  of  Skiddaw  to  grind  that 
into  what  it  is ;  but  I  don't  know  in  the  least  how  much 
chalk  or  freestone  they  think  has  been  ground  off  the 
East  Cliff  at  Brighton,  to  flatten  that  into  what  it  is. 
They  tell  me  that  Mont  Blanc  must  have  been  three 
times  as  high  as  he  is  now,  when  God,  or  the  affinity  of 
atoms,  first  made  him  ;  but  give  me  no  idea  whatever 
how  much  higher  the  shore  of  the  Adriatic  was  than  it  is 
now,  before  the  lagoon  of  Venice  was  rubbed  out  of  it. 

10.  Collecting  and  inferring  as  best  I  can,  it  seems  to 
me  they  mean  generally  that  all  the  mountains  were 
much  higher  than  they  are  now,  and  all  the  plains  lower; 
and  that  what  has  been  scraped  off  the  one  has  been 
heaped  on  to  the  other :  but  that  is  by  no  means  gen- 
erally so ;  and  in  the  degree  in  which  it  is  so,  hitherto 
has  been  unexplained,  and  has  even  the  aspect  of  being 
inexplicable. 

I  don't  know  what  sort  of  models  of  the  district  you 
have  in  the  Museum,  but  the  kind  commonly  sold  repre- 
sent the  entire  mountain  surface  merely  as  so  much 
sandheap  washed  into  gutters.  It  is  totally  impossible 
for  your  youth,  while  these  false  impressions  are  con- 
veyed by  the  cheap  tricks  of  geographical  manufacture, 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND    ITS   STREAMLETS.  187"' 

to  approach  the  problems  of  mountain  form  under  any 
sense  of  their  real  conditions :  while  even  advanced 
geologists  are  too  much  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that 
every  mountain  mass  may  be  considered  as  a  heap  of 
homogeneous  clay,  which  some  common  plough  has  fret- 
ted into  similar  clods. 

But  even  to  account  for  the  furrows  of  a  field  you 
must  ask  for  plough  and  ploughman.  How  much  more 
to  account  for  the  furrows  of  the  adamantine  rock.  Shall 
one  plough  there  with  oxen  ? 

I  will  ask  you,  therefore,  to-night,  to  approach  this 
question  in  its  first  and  simplest  terms,  and  to  examine 
the  edge  of  the  weapon  which  is  supposed  to  be  still  at 
work.  The  streamlets  of  the  dale  seem  yet  in  many 
places  to  be  excavating  their  glens  as  they  dash  down 
them, — or  deepening  the  pools  under  their  cascades.  Let 
us  in  such  simple  and  daily  visible  matters  consider  more 
carefully  what  are  the  facts. 

11.  Towards  the  end  of  July,  this  last  summer,  I 
was  sauntering  among  the  fern,  beside  the  bed  of  the 
Yewdale  stream,  and  stopped,  as  one  does  instinctively, 
at  a  place  where  the  stream  stopped  also, — bending  itself 
round  in  a  quiet  brown  eddy  under  the  root  of  an  oak  tree 

How  many  thousand  thousand  times  have  I  not  stopped 
to  look  down  into  the  pools  of  a  mountain  stream, — and 
yet  never  till  that  day  had  it  occurred  to  me  to  ask  how 
the  pools  came  there.  As  a  matter  of  course,  I  had 
always  said  to  myself,  there  must  be  deep  places  and  shal- 


188  DEUCALION. 

low  ones, — and  where  the  water  is  deep  there  is  an  eddy, 
and  where  it  is  shallow  there  is  a  ripple, — and  what  more 
is  there  to  say  about  it  ? 

However,  that  day,  having  been  of  late  in  an  interrog- 
ative humour  about  everything,  it  did  suddenly  occur 
to  me  to  ask  why  the  water  should  be  deep  there,  more 
than  anywhere  else.  This  pool  was  at  a  bend  of  the 
stream,  and  rather  a  wide  part  of  it;  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that,  for  the  most  part,  the  deep  pools  I  recol- 
lected had  been  at  bends  of  streams,  and  in  rather  wide 
parts  of  them  ; — with  the  accompanying  condition  of 
slow  circular  motion  in  the  water ;  and  also,  mostly  under 
steep  banks. 

12.  Gathering  my  fifty  years'  experience  of  brooks, 
this  seemed  to  me  a  tenable  generalization,  that  on  the 
whole,  where  the  bank  was  steepest,  and  one  was  most 
likely  to  tumble  in,  one  was  least  likely  to  get  out  again. 

And  that  gloomily  slow  and  sullen  motion  on  the  sur- 
face, as  if  the  bubbles  were  unwillingly  going  round  in  a 
mill, — this  also  I  recollected  as  a  usual  condition  of  the 
deeper  water, — so  usual,  indeed,  that  (as  I  say)  I  never 
once  before  had  reflected  upon  it  as  the  least  odd. 
"Whereas  now,  the  thought  struck  me  as  I  looked,  and 
struck  me  harder  as  I  looked  longer,  If  the  hubbies  stay 
at  the  top,  why  don't  the  stones  stay  at  the  bottom  ?  If, 
when  I  throw  in  a  stick  here  in  the  back  eddy  at  the  sur- 
face, it  keeps  spinning  slowly  round  and  round,  and  never 
goes  down-stream — am  I  to  expect  that  when  I  throw  a 


JLII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  189 

stone  into  the  same  eddy,  it  will  be  immediately  lifted 
by  it  out  of  the  hole  and  carried  away  ?  And  yet  unless 
the  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  hole  has  this  power  of  lift- 
ing stones  out  of  it,  why  is  the  hole  not  filled  up  ? 

13.  Coming  to  this  point  of  the  question,  I  looked  up 
the  beck,  and  down.  Up  the  beck,  above  the  pool,  there 
was  a  shallow  rapid  over  innumerable  stones  of  all  sizes : 
and  down  the  beck,  just  below  the  pool,  there  was  a  ledge 
of  rock  against  which  the  stream  had  deposited  a  heap  of 
rolled  shingle,  and  over  the  edges  of  which  it  flowed  in 
glittering  tricklets,  so  shallow  that  a  child  of  four  years 
old  might  have  safely  waded  across ;  and  between  the 
loose  stones  above  in  the  steep  rapid,  and  the  ledge  of 
rock  below — which  seemed  put  there  expressly  for  them 
to  be  lodged  against — here  was  this  deep,  and  wide,  and 
quiet,  pool. 

So  I  stared  at  it,  and  stared ;  and  the  more  I  stared,  the 
less  I  understood  it.  And  if  you  like,  any  of  you  may 
easily  go  and  stare  too,  for  the  pool  in  question  is  visible 
enough  from  the  coach-road,  from  Mr.  Sly's  Waterhead 
Inn,  up  to  Tilberthwaite.  You  turn  to  the  right  from  the 
bridge  at  Mr.  Bowness's  smithy,  and  then  in  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  you  may  look  over  the  roadside  wall  into  this  quiet 
recess  of  the  stream,  and  consider  of  many  things.  For, 
observe,  if  there  were  anything  out  of  the  way  in  the 
pool — I  should  not  send  you  to  look  at  it.  I  mark  it  only 
for  one  of  myriads  such  in  every  mountain  stream  that 
ever  trout  leaped  or  ripple  laughed  in. 


190  DEUCALION. 

And  beside  it,  as  a  type  of  all  its  brother  deeps,  these 
following  questions  may  be  wisely  put  to  yourselves. 

14.  First — How  are  any  of  the  pools  kept  clear  in  a 
stream  that  carries  shingle  ?     There  is  some  power  the 
water  has  got  of  lifting  it  out  of  the  deeps  hitherto  un- 
explained— unthought  of.     Coming  down  the  rapid  in  a 
rage,  it  drops  the  stones,  and  leaves  them  behind  ;  coming 
to  the  deep  hole,  where  it  seems  to  have  no  motion,  it 
picks  them  up  and  carries  them  away  in  its  pocket.     Ex- 
plain that. 

15.  But,  secondly,  beside  this  pool  let  us  listen  to  the 
wide  murmuring  geological  voice,  telling  us — "  To  sub- 
aerial  denudation  you  owe  your  beautiful  lake  scenery" ! 
— Then,  presumably,  Yewdale  among  the  rest? — There- 
fore we  may  look  upon  Yewdale  as  a  dale  sub-aerially 
denuded.     That  is  to  say,  there  was  once  a  time  when  no 
dale  was  there,  and  the  process  of  denudation  has  exca- 
vated it  to  the  depth  you  see. 

16.  But  now  I  can  ask,  more  definitely  and  clearly, 
With  what  chisel  has  this  hollow  been  hewn  for  us  ?     Of 
course,  the  geologist  replies,  by  the  frost,  and  the  rain,  and 
the  decomposition  of  its  rocks.     Good  ;  but  though  frost 
may  break  up,  and  the  rain  wash  down,  there  must  have 
been   somebody  to   cart  away  the  rubbish,  or  still  you 
would  have  had  no  Yewdale.     Well,  of  course,  again  the 
geologist  answers,  the  streamlets  are  the  carters  ;  and  this 
stream  past  Mr.  Bowness's  smithy  is  carter-in-chief. 

17.  How  many  cartloads,  then,  may  we  suppose  the 


V 

XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  191 

stream  lias  carried  past  Mr.  Bowness's,  before  it  carted 
away  allYewdale  to  this  extent,  and  cut  out  all  the  north- 
ern side  of  Wetherlam,  and  all  that  precipice  of  Yewdale 
Crag,  and  carted  all  the  rubbish  first  into  Coniston  Lake, 
and  then  out  of  it  again,  and  so  down  the  Crake  into  the 
sea  ?  Oh,  the  geologists  reply,  we  don't  mean  that  the 
little  Crake  did  all  that.  Of  course  it  was  a  great  river 
full  of  crocodiles  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long ;  or  it  was  a 
glacier  five  miles  thick,  going  ten  miles  an  hour  ;  or  a  sea 
of  hot  water  fifty  miles  deep, — or, — something  of  that 
sort.  "Well,  I  have  no  interest,  myself,  in  (mything  of 
that  sort :  and  I  want  to  know,  here,  at  the  side  of  my 
little  puzzler  of  a  pool,  whether  there's  any  sub-aerial 
denudation  going  on  still,  and  whether  this  visible  Crake, 
though  it  can  only  do  little,  does  anything.  Is  it  carry- 
ing stones  at  all,  now,  past  Mr.  Bowness's  ?  Of  course, 
reply  the  geologists  ;  don't  you  see  the  stones  all  along  it, 
and  doesn't  it  bring  down  more  every  flood  ?  "Well,  yes ; 
the  delta  of  Coniston  Waterhead  may,  perhaps,  within 
the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant,  or  within  the  last 
hundred  years,  have  advanced  a  couple  of  yards  or  so. 
At  that  rate,  those  two  streams,  considered  as  navvies,  are 
proceeding  with  the  works  in  hand  ; — to  that  extent  they 
are  indeed  filling  up  the  lake,  and  to  that  extent  sub- 
aerially  denuding  the  mountains.  But  now,  I  must  ask 
your  attention  very  closely :  for  I  have  a  strict  bit  of  logic 
to  put  before  you,  which  the  best  I  can  do  will  not  make 
clear  without  some  helpful  effort  on  your  part. 


192  DEUCALION. 

18.  The  streams,  we  say,  by  little  and  little,  are  fill- 
ing up  the  lake.     They  did  not  cut  out  the  basin  of  that. 
Something  else  must  have  cut  out  that,  then,  before  the 
streams  began  their  work.     Could  the  lake,  then,  have 
been  cut  out  all  by  itself,  and  none  of  the  valleys  that 
lead  to  it  ?     "Was  it  punched  into  the  mass  of  elevated 
ground  like  a  long  grave,  before  the  streams  were  set  to 
work  to  cut  Yewdale  down  to  it  ? 

19.  You  don't  for  a  moment  imagine  that.     "Well,  then, 
the  lake  and  the  dales  that  descend  with  it,  must  have 
been  cut  out  together.     But  if  the  lake  not  by  the  stream- 
lets, then  the  dales  not  by  the  streamlets  ?     The  stream- 
lets  are   the  consequence  of   the   dales  then, — not   the 
causes ;  and  the  sub-aerial  denudation  to  which  you  owe 
your  beautiful  lake  scenery,  must  have  been  something, 
not  only  different  from  what  is  going  on  now,  but,  in  one 
half  of  it  at  least,  contrary  to  what  is  going  on  now. 
Then,  the  lakes  which  are  now  being  filled  up,  were  being 
cut  down ;    and  as  probably,  the  mountains  now  being 
cut  down,  were  being  cast  up. 

20.  Don't  let  us  go  too  fast,  however.     The  streamlets 
are  now,  we  perceive,  filling  up  the  big  lake.     But  are 
they  not,  then,  also  filling  up  the  little  ones?     If  they 
don't  cut  Coniston  water  deeper,  do  you  think  they  are 
cutting  Mr.  Marshall's  tarns  deeper  ?     If  not  Mr.  Mar- 
shall's tarns  deeper,  are  they  cutting  their  own  little  pools 
deeper?     This  pool  by  which  we  are  standing — we  have 
seen  it  is  inconceivable  how  it  is  not  filled  up, — much 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  193 

more  it  is  inconceivable  that  it  should  be  cut  deeper 
down.  You  can't  suppose  that  the  same  stream  which  is 
filling  up  the  Coniston  lake  below  Mr.  Bowness's,  is  cut- 
ting out  another  Coniston  lake  above  Mr.  Bowness's? 
The  truth  is  that,  above  the  bridge  as  below  it,  and  from 
their  sources  to  the  sea,  the  streamlets  have  the  same 
function,  and  are  filling,  not  deepening,  alike  lake,  tarn, 
pool,  channel,  and  valley. 

21.  And  that  being  so,  think  how  you  have  been  mis- 
led by  seeking  knowledge  far  afield,  and  for  vanity's  sake, 
instead  of  close  at  home,  and  for  love's  sake.  You  must 
go  and  see  Niagara,  must  you  ? — and  you  will  brick  up  and 
make  a  foul  drain  of  the  sweet  streamlet  that  ran  past 
your  doors.  And  all  the  knowledge  of  the  waters  and 
the  earth  that  God  meant  for  you,  flowed  with  it,  as  water 
of  life. 

Understand,  then,  at  least,  and  at  last,  to-day,  Niagara 
is  a  vast  Exception — and  Deception.  The  true  cataracts 
and  falls  of  the  great  mountains,  as  the  dear  little  cascades 
and  leaplets  of  your  own  rills,  fall  where  they  fell  of  old ; 
— that  is  to  say,  wherever  there's  a  hard  bed  of  rock  for 
them  to  jump  over.  They  don't  cut  it  away — and  they 
can't.  They  do  form  pools  beneath  in  a  mystic  way, — 
they  excavate  them  to  the  depth  which  will  break  their 
fall's  force — and  then  they  excavate  no  more.* 

We  must  look,  then,  for  some  other  chisel  than  the 

*  Else  every  pool  would  become  a  well,  of  continually  increasing 
depth. 
13 


194  DEUCALION. 

streamlet ;  and  therefore,  as  we  have  hitherto  interrogat- 
ed the  waters  at  their  .work,  we  will  now  interrogate  the 
hills,  in  their  patience. 

22.  The  principal  flank  of  Yewdale  is  formed  by  a  steep 
range  of  crag,  thrown  out  from  the  greater  mass  of  Weth- 
erlarn,  and  known  as  Yewdale  Crag. 

It  is  almost  entirely  composed  of  basalt,  or  hard  vol- 
canic ash ;  and  is  of  supreme  interest  among  the  southern 
hills  of  the  lake  district,  as  being  practically  the  first 
rise  of  the  great  mountains  of  England,  out  of  the  low- 
lands of  England. 

And  it  chances  that  my  own  study  window  being  just 
opposite  this  crag,  and  not  more  than  a  mile  from  it  as  the 
bird  flies,  I  have  it  always  staring  me,  as  it  were,  in  the 
face,  and  asking  again  and  again,  when  I  look  up  from 
writing  any  of  my  books, — "  How  did  /come  here  ?" 

I  wrote  that  last  sentence  hurriedly,  but  leave  it — as  it 
was  written  ;  for,  indeed,  however  well  I  know  the  vanity 
of  it,  the  question  is  still  sometimes,  in  spite  of  my  best 
effort,  put  to  me  in  that  old  form  by  the  mocking  crags, 
as  by  a  vast  couchant  Sphinx,  tempting  me  to  vain  labour 
in  the  inscrutable  abyss. 

But  as  I  regain  my  collected  thought,  the  mocking  ques- 
tion ceases,  and  the  divine  one  forms  itself,  in  the  voice  of 
vale  and  streamlet,  and  in  the  shadowy  lettering  of  the 
engraven  rock. 

"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
earth  ? — declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding." 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  195 

23.  How  Yewdale  Crags  came  there,  I,  for  one,  will  no 
more  dream,  therefore,  of  knowing,  than  the  wild  grass 
can  know,  that  shelters  in  their  clefts.     I  will  only  to- 
night ask  you  to  consider  one  more  mystery  in  the  things 
they  have  suffered  since  they  came. 

You  might  naturally  think,  following  out  the  idea  of 
6  sub-aerial  denudation,'  that  the  sudden  and  steep  rise  of 
the  crag  above  these  softer  strata  was  the  natural  conse- 
quence of  its  greater  hardness ;  and  that  in  general  the 
district  was  only  the  remains  of  a  hard  knot  or  kernel  in 
the  substance  of  the  island,  from  which  the  softer  super- 
incumbent or  surrounding  material  had  been  more  or  less 
rubbed  or  washed  away.* 

24.  But  had  that  been  so,  one  result  of  the  process  must 
have  been  certain — that  the  hard  rocks  would  have  resist- 
ed more  than  the  soft ;  and  that  in  some  distinct  propor- 
tion and  connection,  the  hardness  of  a  mountain  would  be 
conjecturable  from  its  height,  and  the  whole  surface  of 
the  district  more  or   less  manifestly  composed  of  hard 
bosses  or  ridges,  with  depressions  between  them  in  softer 
materials.     Nothing  is  so  common,  nothing  so  clear,  as 
this  condition,  on  a  small  scale,  in  every  weathered  rock. 

*  The  most  wonderful  piece  of  weathering,  in  all  my  own  district, 
is  on  a  projecting  mass  of  intensely  hard  rock  on  the  eastern  side  of 
Goat's  Water.  It  was  discovered  and  shown  to  me  by  my  friend  the 
Rev.  F.  A.  Malleson  ;  and  exactly  resembles  deep  ripple-marking, 
though  nothing  in  the  grain  of  the  rock  indicates  its  undulatory  struc- 
ture. 


196  DEUCALION". 

Its  quartz,  or  other  hard  knots  and  veins,  stand  out  from 
the  depressed  surface  in  raised  walls,  like  the  divisions  be- 
tween the  pits  of  Dant&'s  eighth  circle, — and  to  a  certain 
extent,  Mr.  Ward  tells  us,  the  lava  dykes,  either  by  their 
hardness  or  by  their  decomposition,  produce  walls  and 
trenches  in  the  existing  surface  of  the  hills.  But  these 
are  on  so  small  a  scale,  that  on  this  map  they  cannot  be 
discernibly  indicated ;  and  the  quite  amazing  fact  stands 
out  here  in  unqualified  and  indisputable  decision,  that  by 
whatever  force  these  forms  of  your  mountains  were  hewn, 
it  cut  through  the  substance  of  them,  as  a  sword-stroke 
through  flesh,  bone,  and  marrow,  and  swept  away  the 
masses  to  be  removed,  with  as  serene  and  indiscriminating 
power  as  one  of  the  shot  from  the  Devil's  great  guns  at 
Shoeburyness  goes  through  the  oak  and  the  iron  of  its 
target. 

25.  It  is  with  renewed  astonishment,  whenever  I  take 
these  sections  into  my  hand,  that  I  observe  the  phenome- 
non itself ;  and  that  I  remember  the  persistent  silence  of 
geological  teachers  on  this  matter,  through  the  last  forty 
years  of  their  various  discourse.  In  this  shortened  sec- 
tion, through  Bowfell  to  Brantwood,  you  go  through  the 
summits  of  three  first-rate  mountains  down  to  the  low- 
land moors:  you  find  them  built,  or  heaped;  barred,  or 
bedded ;  here  with  forged  basalt,  harder  than  flint  and 
tougher  than  iron, — there,  with  shivering  shales  that  split 
themselves  into  flakes  as  fine  as  puff-paste,  and  as  brittle 
as  shortbread.  And  behold,  the  hewing  tool  of  the  Mas- 


Fig.l.     Slates    of  Bull    Crag    and   Maiden  Moor.    (GEOLf    SURVEY.] 


Fig.  2.  Pie -Paste       Compression    from    the   right,   simple. 


Fig. 3.  Pie-Paste.     Compression,  modified  ^y  elevatory  forces. 


Fig.  4-.  Pie  Paste.     Compression,  restricted    to    tTie    lower     Strata 

Plate    VI  under   a  rl3id  uPPer  one- 
LATERAL    COMPRESSION    OF     STRATA. 
Fig.l,  Ideal .  Figs.  2.  3.&  4.  Practical. 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS. 


ter  Builder  sweeps  along  the  forming  lines,  and  shapes 
the  indented  masses  of  them,  as  a  draper's  scissors  shred 
a  piece  of  striped  sarsnet ! 

26.  Now  do  but  think  a  little  of  the  wonderf  ulness  in 
this.     If  the  process  of  grinding  was  slow,  why  don't  the 
hard  rocks  project  ?     If  swift,  what  kind  of  force  must  it 
have  been  ?  and  why  do  the  rocks  it  tore  show  no  signs 
of  rending  ?     Nobody  supposes  it  was  indeed  swift  as  a 
sword  or  a  cannon-ball ;  but  if  not,  why  are  the  rocks  not 
broken  ?     Can  you  break  an  oak  plank  and  leave  no  splin- 
ters, or  cut  a  bed  of  basalt  a  thousand  feet  thick  like 
cream-cheese. 

But  you  suppose  the  rocks  were  soft  when  it  was  done. 
Why  don't  they  squeeze,  then? 

Make  Dover  cliffs  of  baker's  dough,  and  put  St.  Paul's 
on  the  top  of  them, — won't  they  give  way  somewhat, 
think  you  ?  and  will  you  then  make  Causey  Pike  of 
clay,  and  heave  Scawfell  against  the  side  of  it ;  and  yet 
shall  it  not  so  much  as  show  a  bruise  ? 

Yet  your  modern  geologists  placidly  draw  the  folded 
beds  of  the  Skiddaw  and  Causey  Pike  slate,  first,  with- 
out observing  whether  the  folds  they  draw  are  possible 
folds  in  anything ;  and,  secondly,  without  the  slightest 
suggestion  of  sustained  pressure,  or  bruise,  in  any  part 
of  them. 

27.  I  have  given  in  my  diagram,  (Plate  VL,  Fig.  1,) 
the  section,  attributed,  in  that  last  issued  by  the  Geologi- 
cal Survey,  to  the  contorted  slates  of  Maiden  Moor,  be- 


198  DEUCALIOK. 

tween  Causey  Pike  and  the  erupted  masses  of  the  cen- 
tral mountains.  Now,  for  aught  I  know,  those  contor- 
sions  may  be  truly  represented  ; — but  if  so,  they  are  not 
contortions  by  lateral  pressure.  For,  first,  they  are  im- 
possible forms  in  any  substance  whatever,  capable  of  be- 
ing contorted  ;  and,  secondly,  they  are  doubly  impossible 
in  any  substance  capable  of  being  squeezed. 

Impossible,  I  say,  first  in  any  substance  capable  of 
being  contorted.  Fold  paper,  cloth,  leather,  sheets  of 
iron, — what  you  will,  and  still  you  can't  have  the  folded 
bed  at  the  top  double  the  length  of  that  at  the  bottom. 
But  here,  I  have  measured  the  length  of  the  upper  bed, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  lower,  and  it  is  twenty 
miles,  to  eight  miles  and  a  half. 

Secondly,  1  say,  these  are  impossible  folds  in  any  sub- 
stance capable  of  being  squeezed,  for  every  such  sub- 
stance will  change  its  form  as  well  as  its  direction  under 
pressu're.  And  to  show  you  how  such  a  substance  does 
actually  behave,  and  contort  itself  under  lateral  pressure, 
I  have  prepared  the  sections  Figures  2,  3,  and  4. 

28.  I  have  just  said,  you  have  no  business  to  seek 
knowledge  far  afield,  when  you  can  get  it  at  your  doors. 
But  more  than  that,  you  have  no  business  to  go  outside 
your  doors  for  it,  when  you  can  get  it  in  your  parlour. 
And  it  so  happens  that  the  two  substances  which,  while 
the  foolish  little  king  was  counting  out  his  money,  the 
wise  little  queen  was  eating  in  the  parlour,  are  precisely 
the  two  substances  beside  which  wise  little  queens,  and 


„ 

XII.    YEWDALE   AKD   ITS   STREAMLETS.  199 

kings,  and  everybody  else,  may  also  think,  in  the  par- 
lour,— Bread  and  honey.  For  whatever  bread,  or  at 
least  dough,  will  do  under  pressure,  ductile  rocks,  in 
their  proportion,  must  also  do  under  pressure ;  and  in 
the  manner  that  honey  will  move,  poured  upon  a  slice  of 
them, — in  that  manner,  though  in  its  own  measure,  ice 
will  move,  poured  upon  a  bed  of  them.  Rocks,  no  more 
than  pie-crust,  can  be  rolled  out  without  squeezing  them 
thinner ;  and  flowing  ice  can  no  more  excavate  a  valley, 
than  flowing  treacle  a  teaspoon. 

29.  I  said  just  now,  Will  you  dash  Scawfell  against 
Causey  Pike  ? 

I  take,  therefore,  from  the  Geological  Survey  the 
section  of  the  Skiddaw  slates,  which  continue  the  mass 
of  Causey  Pike  under  the  Yale  of  Newlands,  to  the 
point  where  the  volcanic  mass  of  the  Scawfell  range 
thrusts  itself  up  against  them,  and  laps  over  them.  They 
are  represented,  in  the  section,  as  you  see,  (Plate  VI., 
Fig.  1 ;)  and  it  has  always  been  calmly  assumed  by 
geologists  that  these  contortions  were  owing  to  lateral 
pressure. 

But  I  must  beg  you  to  observe  that  since  the  upper- 
most of  these  beds,  if  it  were  straightened  out,  would  be 
more  than  twice  the  length  of  the  lower  ones,  you  could 
only  obtain  that  elongation  by  squeezing  the  upper  bed 
more  than  the  lower,  arid  making  it  narrower  where  it 
is  elongated.  Now,  if  this  were  indeed  at  the  surface  of 
the  ground,  the  geologists  might  say  the  upper  bed  had 


200  DEUCALION. 

been  thrown  up  because  there  was  less  weight  on  it. 
But,  by  their  own  accounts,  there  were  five  miles  thick 
of  rocks  on  the  top  of  all  this  when  it  \vas  bent.  So  you 
could  not  have  made  one  bed  tilt  up,  and  another  stay 
down  ;  and  the  structure  is  evidently  an  impossible  one. 

30.  Nay,  answer  the  surveyors,  impossible  or  not,  it 
is  there.     I  partly,  in  pausing,  myself  doubt  its  being 
there.     This  looks  to  me  an  ideal,  as  well  as  an  impossi- 
ble, undulation. 

But  if  it  is  indeed  truly  surveyed,  then  assuredly, 
whatever  it  may  be  owing  to,  it  is  not  owing  to  lateral 
pressure. 

That  is  to  say,  it  may  be  a  crystalline  arrangement 
assumed  under  pressure,  but  it  is  assuredly  not  a  form 
assumed  by  ductile  substance  under  mechanical  force. 
Order  the  cook  to  roll  out  half  a  dozen  strips  of  dough, 
and  to  stain  three  of  them  with  cochineal.  Put  red  and 
white  alternately  one  above  the  other.  Then  press  them 
in  any  manner  you  like ;  after  pressure,  a  wetted  carv- 
ing knife  will  give  you  quite  unquestionable  sections, 
and  you  see  the  results  of  three  such  experiments  in  the 
lower  figures  of  the  plate. 

31.  Figure   2   represents   the   simplest  possible  case. 
Three  white  and  three  red  dough-strips  were  taken,  a 
red  one  uppermost,  (for  the  pleasure  of  painting  it  after- 
wards) !     They  were  left  free  at  the  top,  enclosed  at  the 
sides,  and   then  reduced  from  a   foot   to  six  inches  in 
length,  by  pressure  from  the  right.     The  result,  you  see, 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  201 

is  that  the  lower  bed  rises  into  sharpest  gables ;  the 
upper  ones  are  rounded  softly.  But  in  the  geological 
section  it  is  the  upper  bed  that  rises,  the  lower  keeps 
down  !  The  second  case  is  much  more  interesting.  The 
pastes  were  arranged  in  the  same  order,  but  bent  up  a 
little,  to  begin  with,  in  two  places,  before  applying  the 
pressure.  The  result  was,  to  my  own  great  surprise, 
that  at  these  points  of  previous  elevation,  the  lower  bed 
first  became  quite  straight  by  tension  as  it  rose,  and  then 
broke  into  transverse  faults. 

32.  The  third  case  is  the  most  interesting  of  all.     In 
this  case,  a  roof  of  slate  was  put  over   the  upper  bed, 
allowing  it  to  rise  to  some  extent  only,  and  the  pressure 
was  applied  to  the  two  lower  beds  only.*     The  upper 
bed  of  course  exuded  backwards,  giving  these  flame-like 
forms,  of  which  afterwards  I  got  quite  lovely  complica- 
tions by  repeated  pressures.     These  I  must  reserve  for 
future  illustration,  concluding  to-night,  if  you  will  per- 
mit me,  with   a  few  words   of  general   advice   to   the 
younger  members  of  this  society,  formed  as  it  has  been 
to  trace  for  itself  a  straight  path  through  the  fields  of 
literature,  and  over  the  rocks  of  science. 

33.  First. — Whenever  you  write  or  read  English,  write 
it  pure,  and  make  it  pure  if  ill  written,  by  avoiding  all 
unnecessary   foreign,  especially  Greek,  forms  of  words 

*  Here  I  had  to  give  the  left-hand  section,  as  it  came  more  neatly. 
The  wrinkled  mass  on  the  left  coloured  brown  represents  the  push- 
ing piece  of  wood,  at  the  height  to  which  it  was  applied. 


202  DEUCALION". 

yourself,  and  translating  them  when  used  by  others. 
Above  all,  make  this  a  practice  in  science.  Great  part 
of  the  supposed  scientific  knowledge  of  the  day  is  sim- 
ply bad  English,  and  vanishes  the  moment  you  trans- 
late it. 

There  is  a  farther  very  practical  reason  for  avoiding 
all  vulgar  Greek-English.  Greece  is  now  a  kingdom, 
and  will  I  hope  remain  one,  and  its  language  is  now 
living.  The  ship-chandler,  within  six  doors  of  me  on 
the  quay  at  Yenice,  had  indeed  a  small  English  sign — 
calling  himself  Ship-Chandler ;  but  he  had  a  large  and 
practically  more  serviceable,  Greek  one,  calling  himself 
a  "  Tfpo^Oe rrr}s  TGOV  nXoioov."  IsTowwhen  the  Greeks 
want  a  little  of  your  science,  as  in  very  few  years  they 
must,  if  this  absurd  practice  of  using  foreign  languages 
for  the  clarification  of  scientific  principle  still  holds, 
what  you,  in  compliment  to  Greece,  call  a  4  Dinothe- 
rium,'  Greece,  in  compliment  to  you,  must  call  a  '  Nasty- 
beastium,' — and  you  know  that  interchange  of  compli- 
ments can't  last  long. 

34.  II.  Observe  generally  that  all  knowledge,  little  or 
much,  is  dangerous,  in  which  your  progress  is  likely  to 
be  broken  short  by  any  strict  limit  set  to  the  powers  of 
mortals:  while  it  is  precisely  that  kind  of  knowledge 
which  provokes  vulgar  curiosity,  because  it  seems  so  far 
away ;  and  idle  ambition,  because  it  allows  any  quantity 
of  speculation,  without  proof.  And  the  fact  is  that  the 
greater  quantity  of  the  knowledge  which  modern  science 


• 

XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  203 

is  so  saucy  about,  is  only  an  asses'  bridge,  which  the 
asses  all  stop  at  the  top  of,  and  which,  moreover,  they 
can't  help  stopping  at  the  top  of;  for  they  have  from 
the  beginning  taken  the  wrong  road,  and  so  come  to  a 
broken  bridge — a  Ponte  Rotto  over  the  river  of  Death, 
by  which  the  Pontifex  Maximus  allows  them  to  pass  no 
step  farther. 

35.  For    instance, — having    invented    telescopes    and 
photography,  you  are  all  stuck  up  on  your  hobby-horses, 
because  you  know  how  big  the  moon  is,  and  can  get 
pictures  of  the  volcanoes  in  it ! 

But  you  never  can  get  any  more  than  pictures  of  these, 
while^in  your  own  planet  there  are  a  thousand  volcanoes 
which  you  may  jump  into,  if  you  have  a  mind  to;  and 
may  one  day  perhaps  be  blown  sky  high  by,  whether 
you  have  a  mind  or  not.  The  last  time  the  great  volca- 
no in  Java  was  in  eruption,  it  threw  out  a  stream  of  hot 
water  as  big  as  Lancaster  Bay,  and  boiled  twelve  thou- 
sand people.  That's  what  I  call  a  volcano  to  be  in- 
terested about,  if  you  want  sensational  science. 

36.  But  if  not,  and  you  can  be  content  in  the  wonder 
and  the  power  of  Nature,  without  her  terror, — here  is  a 
little  bit  of  a  volcano,  close  at  your  very  doors — Yew- 
dale  Crag,  which  I  think  will  be  quiet  for  our  time, — 
and  on  wrhich  the  anagallis  tenella,  and  the  golden  poten- 
tilla,  and  the  sundew,  grow  together  among  the  dewy 
moss  in  peace.      And  on  the  cellular  surface  of  one  of 
the  blocks  of  it,  you  may  find  more  beauty,  and  learn 


204  DEUCALION. 

more  precious  things,  than  with  telescope  or  photograph 
from  all  the  moons  in  the  milky  way,  though  every  drop 
of  it  were  another  solar  system. 

I  have  a  few  more  very  serious  words  to  say  to  the 
fathers,  and  mothers,  and  masters,  who  have  honoured 
me  with  their  presence  this  evening,  with  respect  to  the 
influence  of  these  far-reaching  sciences  on  the  temper  of 
children. 

37.  Those  parents  who  love  their  children  most  ten- 
derly, cannot  but  sometimes  dwell  on  the  old  Christian 
fancy,  that  they  have  guardian  angels.     I  call  it  an  old 
fancy,  in  deference  to   your   modern  enlightenment  in 
religion ;   but  I  assure  you  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  all 
that   illumination,  there  remains   yet   some  dark  possi- 
bility that  the  old  fancy  may  be  true  :  and  that,  although 
the  modern  apothecary  cannot  exhibit  to  you  either  an 
angel,  or  an  imp,  in    a  bottle,  the   spiritual   powers   of 
heaven  and  hell  are  no  less  now,  than  heretofore,  con- 
tending for  the  souls  of  your  children  ;  and  contending 
with  you — for  the  privilege  of  their  tutorship. 

38.  Forgive  me  if  I  use,  for  the  few  minutes  I  have 
yet  to  speak  to  you,  the  ancient  language, — metaphorical, 
if  you  will,  of  Luther  and  Fenelon,  of  Dante  and  Milton, 
of   Goethe  and  Shakspeare,  of  St.  John  and  St.  Paul, 
rather  than  your  modern  metaphysical  or  scientific  slang  : 
and  if  I  tell  you,  what  in  the  issue  of  it  you  will  iind  is 
either  life-giving,  or  deadly,  fact, — that   the  fiends  and 
the  angels  contend  with  you  daily  for  the  spirits  of  your 


XII.    YEWDALE   AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  205" 

children  :  the  devil  using  to  you  his  old,  his  hitherto 
immortal,  bribes,  of  lust  and  pride  ;  and  the  angels 
pleading  with  you,  still,  that  they  may  be  allowed  to  lead 
your  babes  in  the  divine  life  of  the  pure  and  the  lowly. 
To  enrage  their  lusts,  and  chiefly  the  vilest  lust  of 
money,  the  devils  would  drag  them  to  the  classes  that 
teach  them  how  to  get  on  in  the  world ;  and  for  the 
better  pluming  of  their  pride,  provoke  their  zeal  in  the 
sciences  which  will  assure  them  of  there  being  no  God 
in  nature  but  the  gas  of  their  own  graves. 

And  of  these  powers  you  may  discern  the  one  from 
the  other  by  a  vivid,  instant,  practical  test.  The  devils 
always  will  exhibit  to  you  what  is  loathsome,  ugly,  and, 
above  all,  dead  ;  and  the  angels,  what  is  pure,  beautiful, 
and,  above  all,  living. 

39.  Take  an  actual,  literal  instance.  Of  all  known 
quadrupeds,  the  unhappiest  and  vilest,  yet  alive,  is  the 
sloth,  having  this  farther  strange  devilry  in  him,  that 
what  activity  he  is  capable  of,  is  in  storm,  and  in  the 
night.  Well,  the  devil  takes  up  this  creature,  and  makes 
a  monster  of  it, — gives  it  legs  as  big  as  hogsheads,  claws 
stretched  like  the  roots  of  a  tree,  shoulders  like  a  hump 
of  crag,  and  a  skull  as  thick  as  a  paving-stone.  From 
this  nightmare  monster  he  takes  what  poor  faculty  of 
motion  the  creature,  though  wretched,  has  in  its  minuter 
size  ;  and  shows  you,  instead  of  the  clinging  climber  that 
scratched  and  scrambled  from  branch  to  branch  among 
the  rattling  trees  as  they  bowed  in  storm,  only  a  vast 


206  DEUCALION. 

heap  of  stony  bones  and  staggering  clay,  that  drags  its 
meat  down  to  its  mouth  out  of  the  forest  ruin.  This 
creature  the  fiends  delight  to  exhibit  to  you,  but  are  per- 
mitted by  the  nobler  powers  only  to  exhibit  to  you  in  its 
death.* 

*  The  Mylodon.  An  old  sketch,  (I  think,  one  of  Leech's)  in 
Punch,  of  Paterfamilias  improving  Master  Tom's  mind  among  the 
models  on  the  mud-bank  of  the  lowest  pond  at  Sydenham,  went  to 
the  root  of  the  matter.  For  the  effect,  on  Master  Tom's  mind  of  the 
living  squirrel,  compare  the  following  account  of  the  most  approved 
modes  of  squirrel-hunting,  by  a  clerical  patron  of  the  sport,  extracted 
for  me  by  a  correspondent,  from  '  Rabbits  :  how  to  rear  and  manage 
them ;  with  Chapters  on  Hares,  Squirrels,  etc.'  S.  O.  Beeton,  248, 
Strand,  W.  C. 

"  It  may  be  easily  imagined  that  a  creature  whose  playground  is 
the  top  twigs  of  tall  trees,  where  no  human  climber  dare  venture,  is 
by  no  means  easy  to  capture— especially  as  its  hearing  is  keen,  and 
its  vision  remarkably  acute.  Still,  among  boys  living  in  the  vicinity 
of  large  woods  and  copses,  squirrel -hunting  is  a  favourite  diversion, 
and  none  the  less  so  because  it  is  seldom  attended  by  success.  '  The 
only  plan,'  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wood,  '  is  to  watch  the  animal  until  it 
has  ascended  an  isolated  tree,  or,  by  a  well-directed  shower  of  mis- 
siles, to  drive  it  into  such  a  place  of  refuge,  and  then  to  form  a  ring 
round  the  tree  so  as  to  intercept  the  squirrel,  should  it  try  to  escape 
by  leaping  to  the  ground  and  running  to  another  tree.  The  best 
climber  is  then  sent  in  chase  of  the  squirrel,  and  endeavours,  by  vio- 
lently shaking  the  branches,  to  force  the  little  animal  to  loose  its  hold 
and  fall  to  the  earth.  But  it  is  by  no  means  an  easy  matter  to  shake 
a  squirrel  from  a  branch,  especially  as  the  little  creature  takes  refuge 
on  the  topmost  and  most  slender  boughs,  which  even  bend  under  the 
weight  of  its  own  small  body,  and  can  in  no  way  be  trusted  with  the 
weight  of  a  human  being.  By  dint,  however,  of  perseverance,  the 


XII.    YEWDALE  AND   ITS   STREAMLETS.  207 

40.  On  the  other  hand,  as  of  all  quadrupeds  there  is 
none  so  ugly  or  so  miserable  as  the  sloth,  so,  take  him  for 
all  in  all,  there  is  none  so  beautiful,  so  happy,  so  wonder- 
ful as  the  squirrel.  Innocent  in  all  his  ways,  harmless 
in  his  food,  playful  as  a  kitten,  but  without  cruelty,  and 
surpassing  the  fantastic  dexterity  of  the  monkey,  with 
the  grace  and  the  brightness  of  a  bird,  the  little  dark- 
eyed  miracle  of  the  forest  glances  from  branch  to  branch 
more  like  a  sunbeam  than  a  living  creature :  it  leaps, 
and  darts,  and  twines,  where  it  will ; — a  chamois  is  slow 
to  it ;  and  a  panther,  clumsy  :  grotesque  as  a  gnome, 
gentle  as  a  fairy,  delicate  as  the  silken  plumes  of  the 
rush,  beautiful  and  strong  like  the  spiral  of  a  fern, — it 
haunts  you,  listens  for  you,  hides  from  you,  looks  for 
you,  loves  you,  as  if  the  angel  that  walks  with  your  chil- 
dren had  made  it  himself  for  their  heavenly  plaything. 

And  this  is  what  you  do,  to  thwart  alike  your  child's 
angel,  and  his  God, — you  take  him  out  of  the  woods  into 
the  town, — you  send  him  from  modest  labour  to  com- 
petitive schooling, — you  force  him  out  of  the  fresh  air 

squirrel  is  at  last  dislodged,  and  comes  to  the  ground  as  lightly  as  a 
snow-flake.  Hats,  caps,  sticks,  and  all  available  missiles  are  imme- 
diately flung  at  the  luckless  animal  as  soon  as  it  touches  the  ground, 
and  it  is  very  probably  struck  and  overwhelmed  by  a  cap.  The  suc- 
cessful hurler  flings  himself  upon  the  cap,  and  tries  to  seize  the 
squirrel  as  it  lies  under  his  property.  All  his  companions  gather 
round  him,  and  great  is  the  disappointment  to  find  the  cap  empty, 
and  to  see  the  squirrel  triumphantly  scampering  up  some  tree  where 
it  would  be  useless  to  follow  it.' "  ' 


208  DEUCALION. 

into  the  dusty  bone-bouse, — you  sbow  him  the  skeleton 
of  the  dead  monster,  and  make  him  pore  over  its  rotten 
cells  and  wire-stitchea  joints,  and  vile  extinct  capacities 
of  destruction, — and  when  he  is  choked  and  sickened 
with  useless  horror  and  putrid  air,  you  let  him — regret- 
ting the  waste  of  time — go  out  for  once  to  play  again  by 
the  woodside ;  and  the  first  squirrel  he  sees,  he  throws  a 
stone  at! 

Carry,  then,  I  beseech  you,  this  assured  truth  away 
with  you  to-night.  All  true  science  begins  in  the  love, 
not  the  dissection,  of  your  fellow-creatures;  and  it  ends 
in  the  love,  not  the  analysis,  of  God.  Your  alphabet  of 
science  is  in  the  nearest  knowledge,  as  your  alphabet  of 
science  is  in  the  nearest  duty.  "  Behold,  it  is  nigh  thee, 
even  at  the  doors."  The  Spirit  of  God  is  around  you  in 
the  air  that  you  breathe, — His  glory  in  the  light  that 
you  see ;  arid  in  the  fruitf ulness  of  the  earth,  and  the 
joy  of  its  creatures,  He  has  written  for  you,  day  by  day, 
His  revelation,  as  He  has  granted  you,  day  by  day,  your 
daily  bread. 


XIII.    OF  STELLAR  SILICA.  209  ' 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

OF   STELLAR    SILICA. 

1.  THE  issue  of  tins  number  of  Deucalion  has  been  so 
long  delayed,  first  by  other  work,  and  recently  by  my 
illness,  that  I  think  it  best  at  once  to  begin  Mr.  Ward's 
notes  on  Plate  Y. :  reserving  their  close,  with  full  ex- 
planation of  their  importance  and  bearing,  to  the  next 
following  number. 

GRETA  BANK  COTTAGE,  KESWICK, 
June  13,  1876. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  send  you  a  few  notes  on  the  micro- 
scopic structure  of  the  three  specimens  I  have  had  cut. 
In  them  I  have  stated  merely  what  I  have  seen.  There 
has  been  much  which  I  did  not  expect,  and  still  more  is 
there  that  I  don't  understand. 

I  am  particularly  sorry  I  have  not  the  time  to  send  a 
whole  series  of  coloured  drawings  illustrating  the  various 
points ;  but  this  summer  weather  claims  my  time  on  the 
mountain-side,  and  I  must  give  up  microscopic  work 
until  winter  comes  round  again. 

The  minute  spherulitic  structure — especially  along  the 
fine  brown  lines — was  quite  a  surprise,  and  I  shall  hope 
14 


210  DEUCALION. 

on  some  future  occasion  to  see  more  of  this  subject.     Be- 
lieve me,  yours  very  truly, 

J.  CLIFTON  WARD. 

P.S. — There  seems  to  be  a  great  difference  between 
the  microscopic  structure  of  the  specimens  now  examined 
and  that  of  the  n'lled-up  vesicles  in  many  of  my  old  lavas 
here,  so  far  as  my  limited  examination  has  gone. 

SPECIMEN    A. 

No.  1  commences  at  the  end  of  the  section  farthest  from 
A  in  specimen. 

1.  Transparent   zone   with   irregular   curious   cavities 
(not    liquid),   and    a    few   mossy-looking    round    spots 
(brownish). 

Polarization.  Indicating  an  indefinite  semi-crystal- 
line structure.  (See  note  at  page  211.) 

2.  Zone  with  minute  seed-like  bodies  of  various  sizes 
(narrow  brownish  bands  in  the  specimen  of  darker  and 
lighter  tints). 

a.  Many  cavities,  and  of  an  indefinite  oval  form  in 
general. 

5.  The  large  spherulites  (2)  are  very  beautiful,  the 
outer  zone  (radiate)  of  a  delicate  greenish-yellow,  the 
nucleus  of  a  brownish-yellow,  and  the  intermediate  zone 
generally  clear. 

c.  A  layer  of  densely  packed  bodies,  oblong,  or  oval 
in  form. 

d.  Spherulites   generally   similar  to   Z>,   but    smaller, 


XIII.    OF   STELLAR   SILICA.  211  " 

much  more  stained  of  a  brownish-yellow,  and  with  more 
defined  nuclei. 

Polarization.  The  splierulites  show  a  clearly  radiate 
polarization,  with  rotation  of  a  dark  cross  on  turning 
either  of  the  prisms ;  the  intermediate  ground  shows  the 
irregular  semi-crystalline  structure. 

3.  Clear   zone,  with   little   yellowish,   dark,    squarish 
specks. 

Polarization.     Irregular,  semi-crystalline. 

4.  Row  of  closely  touching  spherulites  with  large  nu- 
cleus and  defined  margin,  rather  furry  in  character  (3). 
Margins  and  nuclei  brown ;  intermediate  space  brownish- 
yellow. 

Polarization.     Radiate,  as  in  the  spherulites  2  b. 

(This  is  a  short  brown  band  which  does  not  extend 
down  through  the  whole  thickness  of  the  specimen.) 

"5.  Generally  clear  ground,  with  a  brownish  cloudy  ap- 
pearance in  parts. 

Polarization.     Indefinite  semi-crystalline. 

6  a.  On  a  hazy  ground  may  be  seen  the  cloudy  mar- 
gins of  separately  crystalline  spaces. 

Polarization.     Definite  semi-crystalline.* 

*  By  '  indefinite  semi-crystalline  '  is  meant  the  breaking  up  of  the 
ground  under  crossed  prisms  with  sheaves  (5)  of  various  colours  not 
clearly  margined. 

By  'definite  semi-crystalline'  is  meant  the  breaking  up  of  the 
ground  under  crossed  prisms  with  a  mosaic  (4)  of  various  colours 
clearly  margined. 

By  *  semi-crystalline '  is  meant  the  interference  of  crystalline  spaces 


212  DEUCALION". 

6  5.  A  clear  band  with  very  indefinite  polarization. 

7.  A  clearisb  zone  with  somewhat  of  a  brown  mottled 
appearance  (light  clouds  of  brown  colouring  matter). 

Polarization.     Indefinite  semi-crystalline. 

8.  Zone  of  brownish  bodies  (this  is  a  fine  brown  line, 
about  the  middle  of  the  section  in  the  specimen). 

a.  Yellowish-brown  nucleated  disks. 

5.  Smaller,  scattered,  and  generally  non-nucleated 
disks. 

c.  Generally  non-nucleated. 

Polarization.  The  disks  are  too  minute  to  show  sep- 
arate polarization  effects,  but  the  ground  exhibits  the  in- 
definite semi-crystalline. 

9.  Ground  showing  indefinite  semi-crystalline  polari- 
zation. 

10.  Irregular  line  of  furry-looking  yellowish  disks. 

11.  Zone  traversed  by  a  series  of   generally  parallel 
and  faint  lines  of  a  brownish-yellow.     These  are  appar- 
ently lines  produced  by  colouring  matter  alone, — at  any 
rate,  not  by  visible  disks  of  any  kind. 

Polarization.  Tolerably  definite,  and  limited  by  the 
cross  lines  (6). 

12.  Dark-brown  flocculent-looking  matter,  as  if  grow- 
ing out  from  a  well-defined  line,  looking  like  a  moss- 
growth. 

with  one  another,  so  as  to  prevent  a  perfect  crystalline  form  being 
assumed. 


XIII.    OF  STELLAR   SILICA.  213 

13.  Defined  crystalline  interlocked  spaces. 
Polarisation.     Definite  semi-crystalline. 

14.  Generally,  not  clearly  defined  spaces ;  central  part 
rather  a  granular  look  (spaces  very  small). 

Polarization.  Under  crossed  prisms  breaking  up  into 
tolerably  definite  semi-crystalline  spaces. 

SPECIMEN    B. 

B  1.  In  the  slice  taken  from  this  side  there  seems  to 
be  frequently  a  great  tendency  to  spherulitic  arrange- 
ment, as  shown  by  the  polarization  phenomena.  In 
parts  of  the  white  quartz  where  the  polarization  appear- 
ance is  like  that  of  a  mosaic  pavement,  there  is  even  a 
semi-spherulitic  structure.  In  other  parts  there  are 
many  spherulites  on  white  and  yellowish  ground. 

Between  the  many  parallel  lines  of  a  yellowish  colour 
the  polarization  (7)  effect  is  that  of  fibrous  coloured 
sheaves. 

Here  (8)  there  is  a  central  clear  band  (b)  ;  between  it 
and  (a)  a  fine  granular  line  with  some  larger  granules 
(or  very  minute  spherulites).  The  part  (a)  is  carious, 
apparently  with  glass  cavities.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
clear  band,  at  c,  are  half-formed  and  adherent  spheru- 
lites; the  central  (shaded)  parts  are  yellow,  and  the 
outer  coat,  the  intermediate  portion  clearish. 

B  2.  The  slice  from  this  end  of  the  specimen  shows 
the  same  general  structure. 

'The  general  tendency  to  spherulitic  arrangement  is 


214  DEUCALION. 

well  seen   in   polarized  light,   dark   crosses  frequently 
traversing  the  curved  structures. 

Here  (in  Fig.  9)  the  portion  represented  on  the  left 
was  situated  close  to  the  other  portion,  where  the  point 
of  the  arrow  terminates,  both  crosses  appearing  together, 
and  revolving  in  rotation  of  one  of  the  prisms. 

SPECIMEN  c. 

The  slice  from  this  specimen  presents  far  less  variety 
than  in  the  other  cases.  There  are  two  sets  of  structural 
lines — those  radiate  (10),  and  those  curved  and  circum- 
ferential (11).  The  latter  structure  is  exceedingly  fine 
and  delicate,  and  not  readily  seen,  even  with  a  high 
power,  owing  to  the  fine  radii  not  being  marked  out  by 
any  colour,  the  whole  section  being  very  clear  and 
white. 

A  more  decidedly^nueleated  structure  is  seen  in  part 
12. 

In  (13)  is  a  very  curious  example  of  a  somewhat  more 
glassy  portion  protruding  in  finger-like  masses  into  a 
radiate,  clear,  and  largely  spherical  portion. 

2.  These  notes  of  Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  contain  the  first 
accurate  statements  yet  laid  before  mineralogists  respect- 
ing the  stellar  crystallization  of  silica,  although  that 
mode  of  its  formation  lies  at  the  very  root  of  the  struc- 
ture of  the  greater  mass  of  amygdaloidal  rocks,  and  of 
all  the  most  beautiful  phenomena  of  agates.  And  in- 
deed I  have  no  words  to  express  the  wonder  with  which 


.    OF  STELLAR   SILICA.  215 

I  see  work  like  that  done  by  Cloizeanx  in  the  measure- 
ment of  quartz  angles,  conclude  only  in  the  construction 
of  the  marvellous  diagram,  as  subtle  in  execution  as 
amazing  in  its  accumulated  facts,*  without  the  least 
reference  to  the  conditions  of  varying  energy  which 
produce  the  spherical  masses  of  chalcedony !  He  does 
not  even  use  the  classic  name  of  the  mineral,  but  coins 
the  useless  one,  Geyserite,  for  the  absolutely  local  con- 
dition of  the  Iceland  sinter. 

3.  And  although,  in  that  formation,  he  went  so  near 
the  edge  of  Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  discovery  as  to  announce 
that  "leur  masse  se  compose  ellememe  de  spheres  en- 
chassees  dans  une  sorte  de  pate  gelatineuse,"  he  not  only 
fails,  on  this  suggestion,  to  examine  chalcedonic  struc- 
ture generally,  but  arrested  himself  finally  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  inquiry  by  quietly  asserting,  u  ce  genre  de 
structure  n'a  jamais  ete  rencontre  jusqu'ici  sur  aucune 
autre  variete  de  silice  naturelle  ou  artificielle," — the  fact 
being  that  there  is  no  chalcedonic  mass  whatever,  which 
does  not  consist  of  spherical  concretions  more  or  less 
perfect,  enclosed  in  a  "pate  gelatineuse." 

4.  In  Professor  Miller's  manual,  which  was  the  basis 
of  Cloizeaux's,  chalcedony  is  stated  to  appear  to  be  a 
mixture  of  amorphous  with  crystalline   silica  !   and   its 
form   taken    no   account   of.     Malachite  might   just  as 
well  have  been   described  as  a   mixture  of  amorphous 
with  crystalline  carbonate  of  copper ! 

*  Facing  page  8  of  the  '  Manuel  de  Mineralogie.' 


216  DEUCALIOK. 

5.  I  will  not,  however,  attempt  to  proceed  farther  in 
this  difficult  subject  .until  Mr.  Clifton  "Ward  has  time 
to  continue  his  own  observations.  Perhaps  I  may  per- 
suade him  to  let  me  have  a  connected  series  of  figured 
examples,  from  pure  stellar  quartz  down  to  entirely 
fluent  chalcedony,  to  begin  the  next  volume  of  Deuca- 
lion with  ; — but  I  must  endeavour,  in  closing  the  present 
one,  to  give  some  available  summary  of  its  contents,  and 
clearer  idea  of  its  purpose  ;  and  will  only  trespass  so  far 
on  my  friend's  province  as  to  lay  before  him,  together 
with  my  readers,  some  points  noted  lately  on  another 
kind  of  semi-crystallization,  which  bear  not  merely  on 
the  domes  of  delicate  chalcedony,  and  pyramids  of  micro- 
scopic quartz,  but  on  the  far-seen  chalcedony  of  the 
Dome  du  Goute,  and  the  prismatic  towers  of  the  Cervin 
and  dark  peak  of  Aar. 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MONTIUM.  217 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

SCHISMA    MONTIUM. 

1.  THE  index  closing  this  column  of  Deucalion,  drawn 
up  by  myself,  is  made  as  short  as  possible,  and  classifies 
the  contents  of  the  volume  so  as  to  enable  the  reader  to 
collect  all  notices  of  importance  relating  to  any  one  sub- 
ject, and  to  collate  them  with  those  in  my  former  writ- 
ings.    That  they  need  such  assemblage  from  their  desul- 
tory occurrence  in  the  previous  pnges,  is  matter  of  pin- 
cere  regret  to  me,  but  inevitable,  since  the  writing  of  a 
systematic    treatise    was    incompatible   with   the    more 
serious  work  I  had  in  hand,  on  greater  subjects.     The 
6  Laws  of  Fesole  '  alone  might  well  occupy  all  the  hours 
I  can  now  permit  myself  in  severe  thought.     But  any 
student  of  intelligence  may  perceive  that  one  inherent 
cause  of  the  divided  character  of  this  book,  is  its  func- 
tion of  advance  in  parallel  columns  over  a  wide  field  ; 
seeing  that,  on  no  fewer  than  four  subjects,  respecting 
which  geological  theories  and  assertions  have  long  been 
alike  fantastic   and    daring,  it  has   shown  at   least   the 
necessity  for  revisal  of  evidence,  and,  in  two  cases,  for 
reversal  of  judgment. 

2.  I  say  "  it  has  shown,"  fearlessly  ;  for  at  my  time 
of  life,  every  man  of  ordinary  sense,  and  probity,  knows 


218 

what  he  has  done  securely,  and  what  perishably.  And 
'during  the  last  twenty  years,  none  of  my  words  have 
been  set  down  untriecT ;  nor  has  any  opponent  succeeded 
in  overthrowing  a  single  sentence  of  them. 

3.  But  respecting  the  four  subjects  above  alluded  to, 
(denudation,  cleavage,  crystallization,  and  elevation,  as 
causes  of  mountain  form,)  proofs  of  the  uncertainty,  or 
even  falseness,  of  current  conceptions  have  been  scat- 
tered at  intervals  through  my  writings,  early  and  late, 
from  < Modern  Painters'  to  the  'Ethics  of  the  Dust:' 
and,  with  gradually  increasing  wonder  at  the  fury  of  so- 
called  £  scientific '  speculation,  I  have  insisted,  year  by 
year,  on  the  undealt  with,  and  usually  undreamt  of, 
difficulties  which  lay  at  the  threshold  of  secure  knowl- 
edge in  such  matters ; — trusting  always  that  some  in- 
genuous young  reader  would  take  up  the  work  I  had  no 
proper  time  for,  and  follow  out  the  investigations  of 
which  the  necessity  had  been  indicated.  But  I  waited 
in  vain  ;  and  the  rough  experiments  made  at  last  by  my- 
self, a  year  ago,  of  which  the  results  are  represented  in 
Plate  YI.  of  this  volume,  are  actually  the  first  of  which 
there  is  record  in  the  annals  of  geology,  made  to  ascer- 
tain the  primary  physical  conditions  regulating  the  forms 
of  contorted  strata.  The  leisure  granted  me,  unhappily, 
by  the  illness  which  has  closed  my  relations  with  the 
University  of  Oxford,  has  permitted  the  pursuit  of  these 
experiments  a  little  farther ;  but  I  must  defer  account 
of  their  results  to  the  following  volume,  contenting  my- 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MOKTIUM.  219- 

self  with  indicating,  for  conclusion  of  the  present  one,  to 
what  points  of  doubt  in  existing  theories  they  have  been 
chiefly  directed. 

4.  From   the    examination    of    all   mountain   ground 
hitherto  well  gone  over,  one  general  conclusion  has  been 
derived,  that  wherever  there  are  high  mountains,  there 
are  hard  rocks.     Earth,  at  its  strongest,  has  difficulty  in 
sustaining  itself  above  the  clouds;  and  could  not  hold 
itself  in  any  noble  height,  if  knitted  infirmly. 

5.  And  it  has  farther  followed,  in  evidence,  that  on 
the  flanks  of  these  harder  rocks,  there  are  yielding  beds, 
which  appear  to  have  been,  in  some  places,  compressed 
by  them  into  wrinkles  and  undulations ; — in  others,  shat- 
tered, and  thrown  up  or  down  to  different  levels.     My 
own  interest  was  excited,  very  early  in    life,*  by   the 
forms  and  fractures  in  the  mountain  groups  of  Savoy  ; 
and  it  happens  that  the  undulatory  action  of  the  lime- 
stone beds  on  each  shore  of  the  Lake  of  Annecy,  and 
the  final  rupture  of  their  outmost  wave  into  the  preei- 

*  I  well  yet  remember  my  father's  rushing  up  to  the  drawing-room 
at  Herne  Hill,  with  wet  and  flashing  eyes,  with  the  proof  in  his  hand 
of  the  first  sentences  of  his  son's  writing  ever  set  in  type, — '  Enquiries 
on  the  Causes  of  the  Colour  of  the  Water  of  the  Rhone/  (Magazine 
of  Natural  History,  September,  1834;  (followed  next  month  by 
'  Facts  and  Considerations  on  the  Strata  of  Mont  Blanc,  and  on 
some  Instances  of  Twisted  Strata  observable  in  Switzerland.'  I 
was  then  fifteen.)  My  mother  and  I  eagerly  questioning  the  cause 
of  his  excitement, — "  It's — it's — only  print"  said  he  !  Alas  !  how 
much  the  '  only '  meant ! 


220  DEUCALIOK. 

pice  of  the  Sal  eve,  present  examples  so  clear,  and  so  im- 
posing, of  each  condition  of  form,  that  I  have  been  led, 
without  therefore  layiflg  claim  to  any  special  sagacity,  at 
least  into  clearer  power  of  putting  essential  questions 
respecting  such  phenomena  than  geologists  of  far  wider 
experience,  who  have  confused  or  amused  themselves 
by  collecting  facts  indiscriminately  over  vast  spaces  of 
ground.  I  am  well  convinced  that  the  reader  will  find 
more  profit  in  following  my  restricted  steps ;  and  satis- 
fying, or  dissatisfying  himself,  with  precision,  respect- 
ing forms  of  mountains  which  he  can  repeatedly  and 
exhaustively  examine. 

6.  In  the  uppermost  figure  in  Plate  VII. ,  I  have  en- 
larged and  coloured  the  general  section  given  rudely 
above  in  Figure  1,  page  11,  of  the  Jura  and  Alps,  with 
the  intervening  plain.  The  central  figure  is  the  south- 
ern, and  the  lowermost  figure,  which  should  be  con- 
ceived as  joining  it  on  the  right  hand,  the  northern, 
series  of  the  rocks  composing  our  own  Lake  district, 
drawn  for  me  with  extreme  care  by  the  late  Professor 
Phillips,  of  Oxford. 

I  compare,  and  oppose,  these  two  sections,  for  the 
sake  of  fixing  in  the  reader's  mind  one  essential  point 
of  difference  among  many  resemblances ;  but  that  they 
may  not,  in  this  comparison,  induce  any  false  impres- 
sions, the  system  of  colour  which  I  adopt  in  this  plate, 
and  henceforward  shall  observe,  must  be  accurately  un- 
derstood. 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MONTIUM. 


221 


7.  At  page  130  above,  I  gave  my  reasons  for  making 
no  endeavour,  at  the  Sheffield  Museum,  to  certify  the 
ages  of  rocks.     For  the  same  reason,  in  practical  sections 
I  concern  myself  only  with  their  nature  and  position  ; 
and  colour  granite  pink,  slate  purple,  and  sandstone  red, 
without   inquiring   whether   the  granite    is   ancient   or 
modern, — the  sand  trias  or  pliocene,  and  the  slate  Wen- 
lock  or  Caradoc ;  but  with  this  much  only  of  necessary 
concession  to  recognized  method,  as  to  colour  with  the 
same  tint  all  rocks  which  unquestionably  belong  to  the 
same  great  geological  formation,  and  vary  their  minera- 
logical  characters  within  narrow  limits.     Thus,  since,  in 
characteristic   English    sections,  chalk   may   most    con- 
veniently be  expressed  by  leaving  it  white,  and  some  of 
the  upper  beds  of  the  Alps  unquestionably  are  of  the 
same  period,  I  leave  them  white  also,  though  their  gen- 
eral colour  may  be  brown  or  grey,  so  long  as  they  retain 
cretaceous   or   marly   consistence ;  but   if   they  become 
metamorphic,  and   change   into   clay   slate   or  gneiss,  I 
colour   them  purple,  whatever  their  historical  relations 
may  be. 

8.  And  in  all  geological  maps  and  sections  given  in 
*  Deucalion,'  I  shall  limit  myself  to  the  definition  of  the 
twelve   following  formations   by  the  twelve   following 
colours.     It  is  enough  for  any  young  student  at  first  to 
learn  the  relations  of   these  great   orders   of   rock   and 
earth: — once  master  of  these,  in  any  locality,*  he  may 
split  his  beds  into  any  complexity  of  finely  laminated 


222  DEUCALION. 

chronology  he  likes; — and  if  I  have  occasion  to  split 
them  for  him  myself,  I  can  easily  express  their  minor 
differences  by  methods*  of  engraving.  But,  primarily, 
let  him  be  content  in  the  recognition  of  these  twelve 
territories  of  Demeter,  by  this  following  colour  her- 
aldry : — 
9. 

1.  Granite  will  bear  in  the  field, Rose-red. 

2.  Gneiss  and  mica-slate  Rose-purple. 

3.  Clay-slate  Violet-purple. 

4.  Mountain  limestone  Blue. 

5.  Coal    measures   and   millstone 

grit  Grey. 

6.  Jura  limestone  Yellow. 

7.  Chalk  White. 

8.  Tertiaries  forming  hard  rock  Scarlet. 

9.  Tertiary  sands  and  clays  Tawny 

10.  Eruptive  rocks  not  definitely 

volcanic  Green. 

11.  Eruptive  rocks,  definitely  vol- 

canic, but  at  rest  Green,  spotted  red. 

12.  Volcanic  rocks,  active Black,  spotted  red. 

10.  It  will  at  once  be  seen  by  readers  of  some  geo- 
logical experience,  that  approximately,  and  to  the  degree 
possible,  these  colours  are  really  characteristic  of  the 
several  formations ;  and  they  may  be  rendered  more  so 
by  a  little  care  in  modifying  the  tints.  Thus  the 
£  scarlet'  used  for  the  tertiaries  may  be  subdued  as  much 
as  we  please,  to  what  will  be  as  near  a  sober  brown  as 
we  can  venture  without  confusing  it  with  the  darker 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MOKTIUM. 

shades  of  yellow ;  and  it  may  be  used  more  pure  to 
represent  definitely  red  sandstones  or  conglomerates : 
while,  again,  the  old  red  sands  of  the  coal  measures  may 
be  extricated  from  the  general  grey  by  a  tint  of  ver- 
milion which  will  associate  them,  as  mineral  substances, 
with  more  recent  sand.  Thus  in  the  midmost  section 
of  Plate  VII.  this  colour  is  used  for  the  old  red  con- 
glomerates of  Kirby  Lonsdale.  And  again,  keeping  pure 
light  blue  for  the  dated  mountain  limestones,  which  are 
indeed,  in  their  emergence  from  the  crisp  turf  of  their 
pastures,  grey,  or  even  blue  in  shade,  to  the  eye,  a 
deeper  blue  may  be  kept  for  the  dateless  limestones 
which  are  associated  with  the  metamorphic  beds  of  the 
Alps ;  as  for  my  own  Coniston  Silurian  limestone,  which 
may  be  nearly  as  old  as  Skiddaw. 

11.  The  colour  called  '  tawny,'  I  mean  to  be  as  nearly 
that  of  ripe  wheat  as  may  be,  indicating  arable  land,  or 
hot  prairie;  while,  in  maps  of  northern  countries, 
touched  with  points  of  green,  it  may  pass  for  moorland 
and  pasture :  or,  kept  in  the  hue  of  pale  vermilion,  it 
may  equally  well  represent  desert  alluvial  sand.  Finally, 
the  avoidance  of  the  large  masses  of  fierce  and  frightful 
scarlet  which  render  modern  geological  maps  intolerable 
to  a  painter's  sight,  (besides  involving  such  geographical 
incongruities  as  the  showing  Iceland  in  the  colour  of  a 
red-hot  coal ;)  and  the  substitution  over  all  volcanic  dis- 
tricts, of  the  colour  of  real  greenstone,  or  serpentine,  for 
one  which  resembles  neither  these,  nor  the  general  tones 


224  DEUCALION. 

of  dark  colour  either  in  lava  or  cinders,  will  certainly 
render  all  geological  study  less  injurious  to  the  eye- 
sight, and  less  harmful  4o  the  taste. 

12.  Of  the  two  sections  in  Plate  VIL,  the  upper  one 
is  arranged  from  Studer,  so  as  to  exhibit  in  one  view  the 
principal  phenomena  of   Alpine  structure   according  to 
that   geologist.      The    cleavages   in   the   central  granite 
mass  are  given,  however,  on  my  own  responsibility,  not 
his.     The  lower  section  was,  as  aforesaid,  drawn  for  me 
by  my  kind  old  friend  Professor  Phillips,  and  is,  I  doubt 
not,  entirely  authoritative.     In  all  great  respects,  the  sec- 
tions given  by  Studer  are  no  less  so ;  but  they  are  much 
ruder  in  drawing,  and  can  be  received  only  as  imperfect 
summaries — perhaps,  in  their  abstraction,  occasionally  in- 
volving some   misrepresentation  of   the  complex  facts. 
For  my  present  purposes,  however,  they  give  me  all  the 
data  required. 

13.  It  will  instantly  be  seen,  on  comparing  the  two 
groups  of  rocks,  that  although  nearly  similar  in  succes- 
sion, and  both   suggesting  the  eruptive   and   elevatory 
force  of  the  granitic  central  masses,  there  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference in  the  manner  of  the  action  of  these  on  the  strata 
lifted  by  them.     In  the  Swiss  section,  the  softer  rocks 
seem  to  have  been  crushed  aside,  like  the  ripples  of 
water  round  any  submersed  object  rising  to  the  surface. 
In  the  English  section,  they  seem  to  have  undergone  no 
such  torsion,  but  to  be  lifted  straight,  as  they  lay,  like  the 
timbers  of  a  gabled  roof.     It  is  true  that,  on  the  larger 


XIY.    SCHISMA   MONTITJM. 


scale  of  the  Geological  Survey,  contortions  are  shown  at 
most  of  the  faults  in  the  Skiddaw  slate ;  but,  for  the  rea- 
sons already  stated,  I  believe  these  contortions  to  be 
more  or  less  conventionally  represented ;  and  until  I 
have  myself  examined  them,  will  not'  modify  Professor 
Phillips'  drawing  by  their  introduction. 

Some  acknowledgment  of  such  a  structure  is  indeed 
given  by  him  observably  in  the  dark  slates  on  the  left  in 
the  lowermost  section ;  but  he  has  written  under  these 
undulatory  lines  "  quartz  veins,"  and  certainly  means 
them,  so  far  as  they  are  structural,  to  stand  only  for  or- 
dinary gneissitic  contortion  in  the  laminated  mass,  and 
not  for  undulating  strata. 

14.  Farther.     No  authority  is  given  me  by  Studer  for 
dividing  the  undulatory  masses  of  the  outer  Alps  by  any 
kind  of  cleavage-lines.     Nor  do  I  myself  know  examples 
of  fissile  structure  in  any  of  these  mountain  masses,  un- 
less where  they  are  affected  by  distinctly  metamorphic 
action,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  central  gneiss  or 
mica-schist.     On  the  contrary,  the  entire  courses  of  the 
Cumberland  rock,  from  Kirby  Lonsdale  to  Carlisle,  are 
represented  by  Professor  Phillips  as  traversed  by  a  per- 
fectly definite  and  consistent  cleavage  throughout,  dip- 
ping steeply  south,  in  accurately  straight  parallel  lines, 
and  modified  only,  in  the  eruptive  masses,  by  a  vertical 
cleavage,  characterizing  the  pure  granite  centres. 

15.  I  wish  the  reader  to  note  this  with  especial  care, 

because  the  cleavage  of  secondary  rock  has  been  lately 
15 


226  DEUCALION. 

attributed,  with  more  appearance  of  reason  than  modern 
scientific  theories  usually  possess,  to  lateral  pressure,  act- 
ing in  a  direction  perpendicular  to  the  lamination.  It 
seems,  however,  little  calculated  to  strengthen  our  confi- 
dence in  such  an  explanation,  to  find  the  Swiss  rocks, 
which  appear  to  have  been  subjected  to  a  force  capable 
of  doubling  up  leagues  of  them  backwards  and  forwards 
like  a  folded  map,  wholly  without  any  resultant  schistose 
structure ;  and  the  English  rocks,  which  seem  onlv  to 
have  been  lifted  as  a  raft  is  raised  on  a  wave,  split  across, 
for  fifty  miles  in  succession,  by  foliate  structures  of  the 
most  perfect  smoothness  and  precision. 

16.  It  might  indeed  be  alleged,  in  deprecation  of  this 
objection,  that  the  dough  or  batter  of  which  the  Alps 
were  composed,  mostly  calcareous,  did  not  lend  itself 
kindly  to  lamination,  while  the  mud  and  volcanic  ashes  of 
Cumberland  were  of  a  slippery  and  unctuous  character, 
easily  susceptible  of  rearrangement  under  pressure.  And 
this  view  receives  strong  support  from  the  dextrous  ex- 
periment performed  by  Professor  Tyndall  in  1856,  and 
recorded,  as  conclusive,  in  1872,*  wherein,  first  warming 
some  wax,  then  pressing  it  between  two  pieces  of  glass, 
and  finally  freezing  it,  he  finds  the  congealed  mass  deli- 
cately laminated ;  and  attributes  its  lamination  to  the 
"  lateral  sliding  of  the  particles  over  each  other."  *  But 
with  his  usual,  and  quite  unrivalled,  incapacity  of  follow- 

*  '  Forms  of  Water/  King  and  Co.,  1872,  p.  190. 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MOKTIUM. 

ing  out  any  subject  on  the  two  sides  of  it,  lie  never  tells 
us,  and  never  seems  to  have  asked  himself,  how  far  the 
wax  was  flattened,  and  how  far,  therefore,  its  particles 
had  been  forced  to  slide ; — nor,  during  the  sixteen  years 
between  his  first  and  final  record  of  the  experiment,  does 
he  seem  ever  to  have  used  any  means  of  ascertaining 
whether,  under  the  observed  conditions,  real  compression 
of  the  substance  of  the  wax  had  taken  place  at  all !  For 
if  not,  and  the  form  of  the  mass  was  only  altered  from  a 
lump  to  a  plate,  without  any  increase  of  its  density,  a  less 
period  for  reflection  than  sixteen  years  might  surely  have 
suggested  to  Professor  Tyndall  the  necessity,  in  applying 
his  result  to  geological  matters,  of  providing  mountains 
which  were  to  be  squeezed  in  one  direction,  with  room 
for  expansion  in  another. 

17.  For  once,  however,  Professor  Tyndall  is  not  with- 
out fellowship  in  his  hesitation  to  follow  the  full  circum- 
ference of  this  question.  Among  the  thousands  of  pas- 
sages I  have  read  in  the  works  even  of  the  most  careful 
and  logical  geologists, — even  such  as  Humboldt  and  De 
Saussure, — I  remember  not  one  distinct  statement  *  of 

*  As  these  sheets  are  passing  through  the  press,  I  received  the  fol- 
lowing most  important  note  from  Mr.  Clifton  Ward:  "  With  regard 
to  the  question  whether  cleavage  is  necessarily  followed  by  a  reduc- 
tion in  bulk  of  the  body  cleaved,  the  following  cases  may  help  us  to 
form  an  opinion.  Crystalline  volcanic  rocks  (commonly  called  trap), 
as  a  rule,  are  not  cleaved,  though  the  beds,  uncrystalline  in  character, 
above  and  below  them,  may  be.  When,  however,  a  trap  is  highly 


228  DEUCALION". 

the  degree  in  which  they  supposed  the  lamination  of  any 
given  rock  to  imply  real  increase  of  its  density,  or  only 
the  lateral  extension  ol  its  mass. 

18.  And  the  student  must  observe  that  in  many  cases 
lateral  extension  of  mass  is  precisely  avoided  by  the  very 
positions  of  rocks  which  are  supposed  to  indicate  the 
pressure  sustained.  In  Mr.  Woodward's  experiment 
with  sheets  of  paper,  for  instance,  (above  quoted,  p.  17,*) 
there  is  neither  increase  of  density  nor  extension  of  mass, 
in  the  sheets  of  paper.  They  remain  just  as  thick  as 
they  were, — just  as  long  and  broad  as  they  were.  They 
are  only  altered  in  direction,  and  no  more  compressed,  as 
they  bend,  than  a  flag  is  compressed  by  the  wind  that 

vesicular,  it  is  sometimes  well  cleaved.  May  we  not,  therefore,  sup- 
pose that  in  a  rock,  wholly  crystalline,  the  particles  are  too  much  in- 
terlocked to  take  up  new  positions?  In  a  purely  fragmentary  rock, 
however,  the  particles  seem  to  have  more  freedom  of  motion;  their 
motion  under  pressure  leads  to  a  new  and  more  parallel  arrangement 
of  particles,  each  being  slightly  flattened  or  pulled  out  along  the 
planes  of  new  arrangement.  This,  then,  points  to  a  diminution  of 
bulk  at  any  rate  in  a  direction  at  right  angles  to  the  planes  of  cleav- 
age. The  tendency  to  new  arrangement  of  particles  under  pressure 
points  to  accommodation  under  altered  circumstances  of  space.  In  rocks 
composed  of  fragments,  the  interspaces,  being  for  the  most  part 
larger  than  the  intercrystalline  spaces  of  a  trap  rock,  more  freely  al- 
low of  movement  and  new  arrangement." 

*  There  is  a  double  mistake  in  the  fourth  line  from  the  top  in  that 
page.  I  meant  to  have  written,  "  from  a  length  of  four  inches  into 
the  length  of  one  inch," — but  I  believe  the  real  dimensions  should 
have  been  "  a  foot  crushed  into  three  inches." 


XIY.    SCHISMA   MONTIUM. 

waves  it.  In  my  own  experiments  with  dough,  of 
course  the  dough  was  no  more  compressible  than  so 
much  water  would  have  been.  Yet  the  language  of  the 
geologists  who  attribute  cleavage  to  pressure  might  usu- 
ally leave  their  readers  in  the  notion  that  clay  can  be 
reduced  like  steam  ;  and  that  we  could  squeeze  the  sea 
down  to  half  its  depth  by  first  mixing  mud  with  it! 
Else,  if  they^  really  comprehended  the  changes  of  form 
rendered  necessary  by  proved  directions  of  pressure,  and 
did  indeed  mean  that  the  paste  of  primitive  slate  had 
been  i  flattened  out'  (in  Professor  Tyiidall's  words)  as  a 
cook  flattens  out  her  pastry-crust  with  a  rolling-pin,  they 
would  surely  sometimes  have  asked  themselves, — and  oc- 
casionally taken  the  pains  to  tell  their  scholars, — where 
the  rocks  in  question  had  been  flattened  to.  Yet  in  the 
entire  series  of  Swiss  sections  (upwards  of  a  hundred) 
given  by  Studer  in  his  Alpine  Geology,  there  is  no  hint 
of  such  a  difficulty  having  occurred  to  him; — none,  of 
his  having  observed  any  actual  balance  between  diminu- 
tion of  bulk  and  alteration  of  form  in  contorted  beds ; — 
and  none,  showing  any  attempt  to  distinguish  mechani- 
cal from  crystalline  foliation.  The  cleavages  are  given 
rarely  in  any  section,  and  always  imperfectly. 

19.  In  the  more  limited,  but  steadier  and  closer,  work 
of  Professor  Phillips  on  the  geology  of  Yorkshire,  the 
solitary  notice  of  "  that  very  obscure  subject,  the  cleav- 
age of  slate"  is  contained  in  three  pages,  (5  to  8  of  the 
first  chapter,)  describing  the  structure  of  a,  single  quarry, 


230  DEUCALION. 

in  which  the  author  does  not  know,  and  cannot  event- 
ually discover,  whether  the  rock  is  stratified  or  not!  I 
respect,  and  admire,  the  frankness  of  the  confession  ; 
but  it  is  evident  that  before  any  affirmation  of  value, 
respecting  cleavages,  can  be  made  by  good  geologists,  they 
must  both  ascertain  many  laws  of  pressure  in  viscous 
substances  at  present  unknown;  and  describe  a  great 
many  quarries  with  no  less  attention  than  was  given  by 
Professor  Phillips  to  this  single  one. 

20.  The  experiment  in  wax,  however,  above  referred 
to  as  ingeniously  performed  by  Professor  Tyndall,  is  not 
adduced  in  the  "  Forms  of  water"    for   elucidation  of 
cleavage  in  rocks,  but  of  riband  structure   in   ice — (of 
which  more  presently).     His  first  display  of  it,  however, 
was  I  believe  in  the  lecture  delivered  in   1856  at   the 
Royal   Institution, — this,   and  the  other  similar  experi- 
ments recorded  in  the  Appendix  to  the  '  Glaciers  of  the 
Alps,'  being  then  directed  mainly  to  the  confusion  of 
Professor  Sedgwick,  in  that  the  Cambridge  geologist  had 
• — with  caution — expressed  an  opinion  that  cleavage  was 
a  result  of  crystallization  under  polar  forces. 

21.  Of  that  suggestion  Professor  Tyndall  compliment- 
arily  observed  that  "  it  was  a  bold  stretch  of  analogies," 
and    condescendingly — that    "it   had    its  value, — it   has 
drawn  attention  to  the  subject."     Presently,  translating 
this  too  vulgarly  intelligible  statement  into  his  own  sub- 
lime language,  he  declares  of  the  theory  in  debate  that 
it,  and  the  like  of  it,  are  "  a  dynamic  power  which  oper- 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MOtfTIUM. 

ates  against  intellectual  stagnation."  How  a  dynamic 
power  differs  from  an  undynamic  one, — and,  presum- 
ably, also,  a  potestatib  dynamis  from  an  unpotestatic 
one;)  and  how  much  more  scientific  it  is  to  say,  in- 
stead of — that  our  spoon  stirs  our  porridge, — that  it 
"  operates  against  the  stagnation"  of  our  porridge,  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  trusts  the  reader  to  recognize  with  admi- 
ration. But  if  any  stirring  or  skimming,  or  other  opera- 
tion of  a  duly  dynamic  character,  could  have  clarified 
from  its  scum  of  vanity  the  pease-porridge  of  his  own 
wits,  Professor  Tyndall  would  have  felt  that  men  like 
the  Cambridge  veteran, — one  of  the  very  few  modern 
men  of  science  who  possessed  real  genius, — stretch  no 
analogies  farther  than  they  will  hold ;  and,  in  this  par- 
ticular case,  there  were  two  facts,  familiar  to  Sedgwick, 
and  with  which  Professor  Tyndall  manifests  no  acquaint- 
ance, materially  affecting  every  question  relating  to  cleav- 
age structure. 

22.  The  first,  that  all  slates  whatever,  among  the  older 
rocks,  are  more  or  less  metamorphic;  and  that  all  meta- 
morphisrn  implies  the  development  of  crystalline  force. 
Neither  the  chiastolite  in  the  slate  of  Skiddaw,  nor  the 
kyanite  in  that  of  St.  Gothard,  could  have  been  formed 
without  the  exertion,  through  the  whole  body  of  the 
rock,  of  crystalline  force,  which,  extracting  some  of  its 
elements,  necessarily  modifies  the  structure  of  the  rest. 
The  second,  that  slate-quarries  of  commercial  value,  for- 
tunately rare  among  beautiful  mountains,  owe  their 


232  DEUCALION. 

utility  to  the  unusual  circumstance  of  cleaving,  over  the 
quarryable  space,  practically  in  one  direction  only.  But 
such  quarryable  spaces  "extend  only  across  a  few  fathoms 
of  crag,  and  the  entire  mass  of  the  slate  mountains  of  the 
world  is  cloven,  not  in  one,  but  in  half  a  dozen  direc- 
tions, each  separate  and  explicit ;  and  requiring,  for  their 
production  on  the  pressure  theory,  the  application  of  half 
a  dozen  distinct  pressures,  of  which  none  shall  neutralize 
the  effect  of  any  other !  That  six  applications  of  various 
pressures  at  various  epochs,  might  produce  six  cross 
cleavages,  may  be  conceived  without  unpardonable  rash- 
ness, and  conceded  without  perilous  courtesy  ;  but  before 
pursuing  the  investigation  of  this  hexfoiled  subject,  it 
would  be  well  to  ascertain  whether  the  cleavage  of  any 
rock  whatever  does  indeed  accommodate  itself  to  the  cal- 
culable variations  of  a  single  pressure,  applied  at  a  single 
time. 

23.  Whenever  a  bed  of  rock  is  bent,  the  substance 
of  it  on  the  concave  side  must  be  compressed,  and  the 
substance  of  it  on  the  convex  side,  expanded.  The  de- 
gree in  which  such  change  of  structure  must  take  place 
may  be  studied  at  ease  in  one's  arm-chair  with  no  more 
apparatus  than  a  stick  of  sealing-wax  and  a  candle ;  and 
as  soon  as  I  am  shown  a  bent  bed  of  any  rock  with  dis- 
tinct lamination  on  its  concave  side,  traceably  gradated 
into  distinct  crevassing  on  its  convex  one,  I  will  admit 
without  farther  debate  the  connection  of  foliation  with 
pressure. 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MONTITJM.  233 

24.  In  the  meantime,  the  delicate  experiments  by  the 
conduct  of  which  Professor  Tyndall  brought  his  audi- 
ences into  what  he  is  pleased  to  call  "contact  with  facts" 
(in  older  times  we  used  to  say  'grasp  of  facts' ;  modern 
science,  for  its  own  part,  prefers,  not  unreasonably,  the 
term  '  contact,'  expressive  merely  of  occasional  collision 
with  them.)  must  remain  inconclusive.     But  if  in  the 
course  of  his  own  various  ; contact  with  facts'  Professor 
Tyndall   has  ever   come  across  a  bed  of  slate  squeezed 
between  two  pieces  of  glass — or  anything  like  them — I 
will  thank  him  for  a  description  of  the  locality.     All 
metamorphic  slates  have  been  subjected  assuredly  to  heat 
— probably  to  pressure;   but  (unless   they  were  merely 
the   shaly  portions   of   a  stratified   group)  the  pressure 
to  which  they  have   been  subjected  was  that  of  an  ir- 
regular mass  of  rock  ejected  in  the  midst  of  them,  or 
driven  fiercely  against  them  ;  and  their  cleavage — so  far 
as  it  is  indeed  produced  by  that  pressure,  must  be  such 
as  the  iron  of  a  target  shows  round  a  shell ; — and  not  at 
all  representable  by  a  film  of  candle-droppings. 

25.  It  is  further  to  be  observed, — and  not  without  in- 
creasing surprise  and  increasing  doubt, — that  the  experi- 
ment was  shown,  on  the  first  occasion,  to  explain   the 
lamination  of  slate,  and   on  the  second,  to  explain  the 
riband   structure  of   ice.     But   there  are  no  ribands  in 
slate,  and  there  is  no  lamination  in  ice.     There  are  no 
regulated  alternations  of  porous  with  solid  substance  in 
the  one ;  and  there  are  no  constancies  of  fracture  by 


234  DEUCALION. 

plane  surfaces  in  the  other ;  moreover — and  this  is  to  be 
chiefly  noted, — slate  lamination  is  always  straight ;  gla- 
cier banding  always  bent.  The  structure  of  the  pressed 
wax  might  possibly  explain  one  or  other  of  these  phe- 
nomena ;  but  could  not  possibly  explain  both,  and  does 
actually  explain  neither. 

26.  That  the  arrangement  of  rock  substance  into  fissile 
folia  does  indeed  take  place  in  metamorphic  aluminous 
masses  under  some  manner  of   pressure,  has,  I  believe, 
been  established  by  the  investigations  both  of  Mr.  Sorby 
and  of  Mr.  Clifton  Ward.     But  the  reasons  for  conti- 
nuity of  parallel  cleavage  through  great  extents  of  vari- 
ously contorted  beds; — for  its  almost  uniform  assumption 
of  a  high  angle; — for  its  as  uniform  non-occurrence  in 
horizontal  laminae  under  vertical  pressure,  however  vast ; 
—for  its  total  disregard  of  the  forces  causing  upheaval 
of  the  beds ; — and  its  mysteriously  deceptive  harmonies 
with  the  stratification,  if  only  steep  enough,  of  neigh- 
bouring sedimentary  rocks,  remain  to  this  hour,  not  only 
unassigned,  but  unsought. 

27.  And  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  understand  either  the 
contentment  of  geologists  witlrthis  state  of  things,  or  the 
results  on  the  mind  of  ingenuous  learners,  of  the  partial 
and  more  or  less  contradictory  information  hitherto  ob- 
tainable on  the  subject.     The  section  given  in  the  two 
lower  figures  of  Plate  VII.  was  drawn  for  me,  as  I  have 
already  said,  by  my  most  affectionately  and  reverently 
remembered   friend,  Professor  Phillips,  of  Oxford.     It 


XIV.    SCHISMA    MONTIUM.  235 

goes  through  the  entire  crest  of  the  Lake  district  from 
Lancaster  to  Carlisle,  the  first  emergent  rock-beds  being 
those  of  mountain  limestone,  A  to  B,  not  steeply  in- 
clined, but  lying  unconformably  on  the  steeply  inclined 
flags  and  grit  of  Furness  Fells,  B  to  C.  In  the  depres- 
sion at  C  lies  Coniston  Lake  ;  then  follow  the  masses  of 
Coniston  Old  Man  and  Scawfell,  C  to  D,  sinking  to  the 
basin  of  Derwentwater  just  after  the  junction,  at  Grange, 
of  their  volcanic  ashes  with  the  Skiddaw  slate.  Skiddaw 
himself,  and  Carrock  Fell,  rise  between  D  and  E ;  and 
above  E,  at  Caldbeck,  again  the  mountain  limestone 
appears  in  nnconformable  bedding,  declining  under  the 
Trias  of  the  plain  of  Carlisle,  at  the  northern  extremity 
of  which  a  few  rippled  lines  do  service  for  the  waves  of 
Solway. 

28.  The  entire  ranges  of  the  greater  mountains,  it  will 
be  seen,  are  thus   represented  by  Professor  Phillips  as 
consisting  of  more  or  less  steeply  inclined  beds,  parallel 
to   those   of  the  Furness  shales ;  and  traversed  by  occa- 
sional cleavages  at  an  opposite  angle.     But  in  the  section 
of  the  Geological  Survey,  already  referred  to,  the  beds 
parallel  to  the  Furness  shales  reach  only  as  far  as  Wether- 
lam,  and  the  central  mountains  are  represented  as  laid  in 
horizontal  or  slightly  basin-shaped  swirls  of  ashes,  trav- 
ersed by  ejected  trap,  and   divided    by  no  cleavages  at 
all,  except  a  few  vertical  ones  indicative  of  the   Tilber- 
thwaite  slate  quarries. 

29.  I  think  it  somewhat  hard  upon  me,  now  that  I  am 


236  DEUCALION. 

sixty  years  old,  and  short  of  breath  in  going  Tip  hills,  to 
have  to  compare,  verify  for  myself,  and  reconcile  as  I 
may,  these  entirely  adverse  representations  of  the  classical 
mountains  of  England : — no  less  than  that  I  am  left  to 
carry  forward,  in  my  broken  leisure,  the  experiments  on 
viscous  motion  instituted  by  James  Forbes  thirty  years 
ago.  For  the  present,  however,  I  choose  Professor  Phil- 
lips' section  as  far  the  most  accurately  representative  of 
the  general  aspect  of  matters,  to  my  present  judgment ; 
and  hope,  with  Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  good  help,  to  give 
more  detailed  drawings  of  separate  parts  in  the  next  vol- 
ume of  Deucalion. 

30.  I  am  prepared  also  to  find  Professor  Phillips'  draw- 
ing in  many  respects  justifiable,  by  my  own  former  studies 
of  the  cleavage  structure  of  the  central  Alps,  which,  in 
all  the  cases  I  have  examined,  I  found  to  be  a  distinctly 
crystalline  lamination,  sometimes  contorted  according  to 
the  rock's  own  humour,  fantastically  as  Damascus  steel ; 
but  presently  afterwards  assuming  inconceivable  consist- 
ency with  the  untroubled  repose  of  the  sedimentary 
masses  into  whose  company  it  had  been  thrust.  The 
junction  of  the  contorted  gneiss  through  which  the  gorge 
of  Trient  is  cleft,  with  the  micaceous  marble  on  which 
the  tower  of  Martigny  is  built,  is  a  transition  of  this  kind 
within  reach  of  the  least  adventurous  traveller ;  and  the 
junction  of  the  gneiss  of  the  Montanvert  with  the  porous 
limestone  which  underlies  it,  is  certainly  the  most  inter- 
esting, and  the  most  easily  explored,  piece  of  rock- fellow- 


XIY.    SCHISMA    MOKTIUM. 

ship  in  Europe.  Yet  the  gneissitic  lamination  of  the 
Montanvert  has  been  attributed  to  stratification  by  one 
group  of  geologists,  and  to  cleavage  by  another,  ever  since 
the  valley  of  Chamouni  was  first  heard  of :  and  the  only 
accurate  drawings  of  the  beds  hitherto  given  are  those 
published  thirty  years  ago  in  '  Modern  Painters.'  I  had 
hoped  at  the  same  time  to  contribute  some  mite  of  direct 
evidence  to  their  elucidation,  by  sinking  a  gallery  in  the 
soft  limestone  under  the  gneiss,  supposing  the  upper  rock 
hard  enough  to  form  a  safe  roof ;  but  a  decomposing  frag- 
ment fell,  and  so  nearly  ended  the  troubles,  with  the  toil, 
of  the  old  miner  who  was  driving  the  tunnel,  that  I  at- 
tempted no  farther  inquiries  in  that  practical  manner. 

31.  The  narrow  bed,  curved  like  a  sickle,  and  coloured 
vermilion,  among  the  purple  slate,  in  the  uppermost  sec- 
tion of  Plate  VII.,  is  intended  to  represent  the  position 
of  the  singular  band  of  qnartzite  and  mottled  schists, 
("  bunte  schiefer,")  which,  on  the  authority  of  Studer's 
section  at  page  178  of  his  second  volume,  underlies,  at 
least  for  some  thousands  of  feet,  the  granite  of  the  Jung- 
frau ;  and  corresponds,  in  its  relation  to  the  uppermost 
cliff  of  that  mountain,  with  the  subjacence  of  the  lime- 
stone of  Les  Tines  to  the  aiguilles  of  Chamouni.  I  have 
coloured  it  vermilion  in  order  to  connect  it  in  the  student's 
mind  with  the  notable  conglomerates  of  the  Black  Forest, 
through  which  their  underlying  granites  -pass  into  the 
Trias ;  but  the  reversed  position  which  it  here  assumes, 
.  and  the  relative  dominance  of  the  central  mass  of  the 


238  DEUCALION. 

Bernese  Alps,  if  given  by  Studer  with  fidelity,  are  cer- 
tainly the  first  structural  phenomena  which  the  geologists 
of  Germany  should  benevolently  qualify  themselves  to 
explain  to  the  summer  society  of  Interlachen.  The  view 
of  the  Jungfrau  from  the  Castle  of  Manfred  is  probably 
the  most  beautiful  natural  vision  in  Europe ;  but,  for  all 
that  modern  science  can  hitherto  tell  us,  the  construction 
of  it  is  supernatural,  and  explicable  only  by  the  Witch  of 
the  Alps. 

32.  In  the  meantime  I  close  this  volume  of  Deucalion 
by  noting  firmly  one  or  two  letters  of  the  cuneiform 
language  in  which  the  history  of  that  scene  has  been 
written. 

There  are  five  conditions  of  rock  cleavage  which  the 
student  must  accustom  himself  to  recognize,  and  hold 
apart  in  his  mind  with  perfect  clearness,  in  all  study  of 
mountain  form. 

I.  The  Wave  cleavage  :  that  is  to  say,  the  condition  of 
structure  on  a  vast  scale  which  has  regulated  the  succes- 
sion of  summits.  In  almost  all  chains  of  mountains  not 
volcanic,  if  seen  from  a  rightly  chosen  point,  some  law  of 
sequence  will  manifest  itself  in  the  arrangement  of  their 
eminences.  On  a  small  scale,  the  declining  surges  of 
pastoral  mountain,  from  the  summit  of  Helvellyn  to  the 
hills  above  Rendal,  seen  from  any  point  giving  a  clear 
profile  of  them,  on  Wetherlarn  or  the  Old  Man  of  Con- 
iston,  show  a  quite  rhythmic,  almost  formal,  order  of 
ridged  waves,  with  their  steepest  sides  to  the  lowlands ; 


XIV.    SCHISMA    MONTIUM. 


239^ 


for  which  the  cause  must  be  sought  in  some  internal 
structure  of  the  rocks,  utterly  untraceable  in  close  section. 
On  vaster  scale,  the  succession  of  the  aiguilles  .of  Cha- 
mouni,  and  of  the  great  central  aiguilles  themselves,  from 
the  dome  of  Mont  Blanc  through  the  Jorasses,  to  the  low 
peak  of  the  aiguille  de  Trient,  is  again  regulated  by  a 
harmonious  law  of  alternate  cleft  and  crest,  which  can  be 
studied  rightly  only  from  the  far-distant  Jura. 

The  main  directions  of  this  vast  mountain  tendency 
might  always  be  shown  in  a  moderately  good  model  of 
any  given  district,  by  merely  colouring  all  slopes  of 
ground  inclined  at  a  greater  angle  than  thirty  degrees,  of 
some  darker  colour  than  the  rest.  No  slope  of  talus  can 
maintain  itself  at  a  higher  angle  than  this,  (compare 
'  Modern  Painters,'  vol.  iv.,  p.  318  ;)  and  therefore,  while 
the  mathematical  laws  of  curvature  by  aqueous  denuda- 
tion, which  were  first  ascertained  and  systematized  by 
Mr.  Alfred  Tylor,  will  be  found  assuredly  to  regulate  or 
modify  the  disposition  of  masses  reaching  no  steeper  angle, 
the  cliffs  and  banks  which  exceed  it,  brought  into  one 
abstracted  group,  will  always  display  the  action  of  the 
wave  cleavage  on  the  body  of  the  yet  resisting  rocks. 

33.  II.  The  Structural  cleavage. 

This  is  essentially  determined  by  the  arrangement  of 
the  plates  of  mica  in  crystalline  rocks,  or — where  the 
mica  is  obscurely  formed,  or  replaced  by  other  minerals 
—by  the  sinuosities  of  their  quartz  veins.  Next  to  the 
actual  bedding,  it  is  the  most  important  element  of  form 


240  DEUCALION. 

in  minor  masses  of  crag ;  but  in  its  influence  on  large 
contours,  subordinate  always  to  the  two  next  following 
orders  of  cleavage. 

34.  III.  The  Asphodeline  cleavage ; — the  detachment, 
that  is  to  say,  of  curved  masses  of  crag  more  or  less  con- 
centric, like  the  coats  of  an  onion.     It  is  for  the  most 
part   transverse   to   the   structural  cleavage,  and   forms 
rounded  domes  and  bending  billows  of  smooth  contour, 
on  the  flanks  of  the  great  foliated  mountains,  which  look 
exactly  as  if  they  had  been  worn  for  ages  under  some 
river  of  colossal  strength.     It  is  far  and  away  the  most 
important  element  of    mountain  form  in  granitic  and 
metamorphic  districts. 

35.  IY.  The  Frontal  cleavage.     This  shows  itself  only 
on  the  steep  escarpments  of  sedimentary  rock,  when  the 
cliff  has  been  produced  in   all   probability  by  rending 
elevatory  force.     It  occurs  on  the  faces  of  nearly  all  the 
great  precipices  in  Savoy,  formed  of  Jura  limestone,  and 
has  been  in  many  cases  mistaken  for  real  bedding.     I 
hold  it  one  of  the  most  fortunate  chances  attending  the 
acquisition   of  Brantwood,   that    I  have   within    three 
hundred  yards  of  me,  as  I  write,  jutting  from  beneath 
my  garden  wall,  a  piece  of  crag  knit  out  of  the  Furness 
shales,  showing  frontal   cleavage   of   the  most   definite 
kind,  and  enabling  me  to  examine  the  conditions  of  it  as 
perfectly  as  I  could  at  Bonneville  or  Annecy. 

36.  Y.  The  Atomic  cleavage. 

This  is  the  mechanical  fracture  of  the  rock  under  the 


XIV.    SCHISMA   MONTIUM. 

hammer,  indicating  the  mode  of  coherence  between  its 
particles,  irrespectively  of  their  crystalline  arrangements. 
The  conchoidal  fractures  of  flint  and  calcite,  the  raggedly 
vitreous  fractures  of  quartz  and  corundum,  and  the 
earthy  transverse  fracture  of  clay  slate,  come  under  this 
general  head.  And  supposing  it  proved  that  slaty  lami- 
nation is  indeed  owing  either  to  the  lateral  expansion  of 
the  mass  under  pressure,  or  to  the  filling  of  vacant  pores 
in  it  by  the  flattening  of  particles,  such  a  formation  ought 
to  be  considered,  logically,  as  the  ultimate  degree  of  fine- 
ness in  the  coherence  of  crushed  substance ;  and  not 
properly  a  '  structure.'  I  should  call  this,  therefore,  also 
an  '  atomic '  cleavage. 

37.  The  more  or  less  rectilinear  divisions,  known  as 
c  joints,'  and  apparently  owing  merely  to  the  desiccation 
or  contraction  of  the  rock,  are  not  included  in  the  above 
list  of  cleavages,  which  is  limited  strictly  to  the  char- 
acters of  separation  induced  either  by  arrangements  of 
the  crystalline  elements,  or  by  violence  in  the  methods  of 
rock  elevation  or  sculpture. 

38.  If  my  life  is  spared,  and  my  purposes  hold,  the 
second  volume  of  Deucalion  will  contain  such  an  account 
of  the  hills  surrounding  me  in  this  district,  as  shall  be,  so 
far  as  it  is  carried,  trustworthy  down  to  the  minutest  de- 
tails in  the  exposition  of  their  first  elements  of  mountain 
form.     And  I  am  even  fond  enough  to  hope  that  some 
of  the  youths  of  Oxford  educated  in  its  now  established 
schools  of  Natural  History  and  Art,  may  so  securely  and 


242  DEUCALION". 

consistently  follow  out  sucli  a  piece  of  home  study  by  the 
delineation  of  the  greater  mountains  they  are  proud  to 
climb,  as  to  redeem,  at  last,  the  ingenious  nineteenth  cen- 
tury from  the  reproach  of  having  fostered  a  mountaineer- 
ing club,  which  was  content  to  approve  itself  in  competi- 
tive agilities,  without  knowing  either  how  an  aiguille 
stood,  or  how  a  glacier  flowed  ;  and  a  Geological  Society, 
which  discoursed  with  confidence  on  the  catastrophes  of 
chaos,  and  the  processes  of  creation,  without  being  able 
to  tell  a  builder  how  a  slate  split,  or  a  lapidary  how  a 
pebble  was  coloured. 


APPENDIX. 


WHEN  I  began  Deucalion,  one  of  the  hopes  chiefly  connected  with 
it  was  that  of  giving  some  account  of  the  work  done  by  the  real  mas- 
ters and  fathers  of  Geology.  I  must  not  conclude  this  first  volume 
without  making  some  reference,  (more  especially  in  relation  to  the 
subjects  of  inquiry  touched  upon  in  its  last  chapter,)  to  the  modest 
life  and  intelligent  labour  of  a  most  true  pioneer  in  geological  science, 
Jonathan  Otley.  Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  sketch  of  the  good  guide's  life, 
drawn  up  in  1877  for  the  Cumberland  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Literature  and  Science,  supplies  me  with  the  following  par- 
ticulars of  it,  deeply — as  it  seems  to  me— instructive  and  impressive. 

He  was  born  near  Ambleside,  at  Nook  House,  in  Loughrigg, 
January  19th,  1766.  His  father  was  a  basket-maker  ;  and  it  is  espec- 
ially interesting  to  me,  in  connection  with  the  resolved  retention  of 
Latin  as  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  education  in  the  system  I  am 
arranging  for  St.  George's  schools,  to  find  that  the  Westmoreland 
basket-maker  was  a  good  Latin  scholar  ;  and  united  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  discipline  for  his  son  with  one  nobler  than  either,  by 
making  him  study  Latin  and  mathematics,  while,  till  he  was  twenty 
five,  he  worked  as  his  father's  journeyman  at  his  father's  handicraft. 
"  He  also  cleaned  all  the  clocks  and  watches  in  the  neighbourhood 
and  showed  himself  very  skilful  in  engraving  upon  copper-plates, 
seals  and  coin."  In  1791  he  moved  to  Keswick,  and  there  lived 
sixty- five  years,  and  died,  ninety  years  old  and  upwards. 

I  find  no  notice  in  Mr.  Ward's  paper  of  the  death  of  the  father,  to 
whose  good  sense  and  firmness  the  boy  owed  so  much.  There  was 
yet  a  more  woful  reason  for  his  leaving  his  birthplace.  He  was  in 
love  with  a  young  woman  named  Anne  Youdale,  and  had  engraved 
their  names  together  on  a  silver  coin.  But  the  village  blacksmith, 
Mr.  Bowness,  was  also  a  suitor  for  the  maiden's  hand  ;  and  some 
years  after,  Jonathan's  niece,  Mrs.  Wilson,  asking  him  how  it  was 
that  his  name  and  Anne  Youdale 's  were  engraved  together  on  the 


244  APPENDIX. 

same  coin,  he  replied,  "  Oh,  the  blacksmith  beat  me."  *  He  never 
married,  but  took  to  mineralogy,  watchmaking,  and  other  consolatory 
pursuits,  with  mountain  rabbling— alike  discursive  and  attentive. 
Let  me  not  omit  what  thanks  for  friendly  help  and  healthy  stimulus 
to  the  earnest  youth  may  be  due  to  another  honest  Cumberland  soul, 
—Mr.  Crosthwaite.  Otley  was  standing  one  day  (before  he  removed 
to  Keswick)  outside  the  Crosthwaite  Museum, f  when  he  was  accosted 
by  its  founder,  and  asked  if  he  would  sell  a  curious  stick  he  held  in 
his  hand.  Otley  asked  a  shilling  for  it,  the  proprietor  of  the  Museum 
stipulating  to  show  him  the  collection  over  the  bargain.  From  this 
time  congenial  tastes  drew  the  two  together  as  firm  and  staunch 
friends. 

He  lived  all  his  life  at  Keswick,  in  lodgings, — recognized  as  "Jona- 
than Otley's,  up  the  steps," — paying  from  five  shillings  a  week  at  first, 
to  ten,  in  uttermost  luxury  ;  and  being  able  to  give  account  of  his 
keep  to  a  guinea,  up  to  October  18, 1852, — namely,  board  and  lodging 
for  sixty-one  years  and  one  week,  £1325  ;  rent  of  room  extra,  fifty-six 
years,  £164  10*.  Total  keep  and  roof  overhead,  for  the  sixty  useful- 
lest  of  his  ninety  years,  £1489  10s. 

Thus  housed  and  fed,  he  became  the  friend,  and  often  the  teacher, 
of  the  leading  scientific  men  of  his  day, — Dr.  Dalton  the  chemist,  Dr. 
Henry  the  chemist,  Mr.  Farey  the  engineer,  Airy  the  Astronomer 
Royal,  Professor  Phillips  of  Oxford,  and  Professor  Sedgwick  of  Cam- 
bridge. He  was  the  first  accurate  describer  and  accurate  map-maker 
of  the  Lake  district ;  the  founder  of  the  geological  divisions  of  its 
rocks, — which  were  accepted  from  him  by  Sedgwick,  and  are  now 
finally  confirmed  ;— and  the  first  who  clearly  defined  the  separation 
between  bedding,  cleavage,  and  joint  in  rock,— hence  my  enforced 
notice  of  him,  in  this  place.  Mr.  Ward's  memoir  gives  examples  of 

*  I  doubt  the  orthography  of  the  fickle  maid's  name,  but  all  authority  of  anti- 
quaries obliges  me  to  distinguish  it  from  that  of  the  valley.  I  do  so,  however, 
still  under  protest — as  if  I  were  compelled  to  write  Lord  Lonsdale, '  Lownsdale,' 
or  the  Marquis  of  Tweeddale,  'Twaddle,'  or  the  victorious  blacksmith,  'Beau- 
ness.'  The  latter's  family  still  retain  the  forge  by  Elter  Water — an  entirely  dis- 
tinct branch,  I  am  told,  from  our  blacksmiths  of  the  Dale  :  see  above,  pp.  189, 190. 

tin  that  same  museum,  my  first  collection  of  minerals — fifty  specimens — total 
price,  if  I  remember  rightly,  five  shillings— was  bought  for  me,  by  my  father,  of 
Mr.  Crosthwaite.  No  subsequent  possession  has  had  so  much  influence  on  my 
life.  I  studied  Turner  at  his  own  gallery,  and  in  Mr.  Windus's  portfolios  ;  but 
the  little  yellow  bit  of  "  copper  ore  from  Coniston,"  and  the  "  Garnets  "  (I  never 
could  see  more  than  one  !)  from  Borrowdale,  were  the  beginning  of  science  to  mo 
which  never  could  have  been  otherwise  acquired. 


APPENDIX. 


245 


his  correspondence  with  the  men  of  science  above  named :  both 
Phillips  and  Sedgwick  referring  always  to  him  in  any  question  touch- 
ing Cumberland  rocks,  and  becoming  gradually  his  sincere  and  affec- 
tionate friends.  Sedgwick  sate  by  his  death-bed. 

I  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  refer  to  his  letters,  and  to  avail 
myself  of  his  work.  But  that  work  was  chiefly  crowned  in  the  ex- 
ample he  left — not  of  what  is  vulgarly  praised  as  self-Jielp,  (for  every 
noble  spirit's  watchword  is  "  God  us  ayde")— but  of  the  rarest  of 
mortal  virtues,  self-possession.  "In  your  patience,  possess  ye  your 
souls." 

I  should  have  dwelt  at  greater  length  on  the  worthiness  both  of  the 
tenure  and  the  treasure,  but  for  the  bitterness  of  my  conviction  that 
the  rage  of  modern  vanity  must  destroy  in  our  scientific  schoolmen, 
alike  the  casket,  and  the  possession. 


INDEX. 


AGATE,  99,  100.  See  CHALCEDONY  ;  also,  if  possible,  the  papers  on 
this  subject  in  the  Geological  Magazine,  vol.  iv.,  Nos.  8  and  11 ; 
v.,  Nos.  1,  4,  5 ;  vi.,  No.  12  ;  and  vii.,  No.  1  ;  and  PEBBLES. 

AGES  OF  BOCKS,  not  to  be  defined  in  the  catalogue  of  a  practical 
Museum,  130. 

ALABASTER,  sacred  uses  of,  93. 

ALABASTRON,  the  Greek  vase  so  called,  93,  106. 

ALPS,  general  structure  of,  8,  220  ;  are  not  best  seen  from  their  high- 
est points,  10  ;  general  section  of,  11 ;  violence  of  former  energies 
in  sculpture  of,  20 ;  Bernese  chain  of,  seen  from  the  Simplon, 
158  ;  sections  of  given  by  Studer  examined,  225,  226. 

ANATOMY,  study  of,  hurtful  to  the  finest  art-perceptions,  8  ;  of  min- 
erals, distinct  from  their  history,  178. 

AMETHYST,  109  ;  and  Bee  HYACINTH. 

ANGELO,  Monte  St.,  near  Naples,  33. 

ANGELS,  and  fiends,  contention  of,  for  souls  of  children,  204. 

ANGER,  and  vanity,  depressing  influence  of,  on  vital  energies,  1,  2. 

ARGENT,  the  Heraldic  metal,  meaning  of,  109. 

ARRANGEMENT,  permanence  of,  how  necessary  in  Museums,  131. 

ARTIST,  distinction  between,  and  man  of  science,  25  ;  how  to  make 
one,  94. 

ATHENA,  her  eyes  of  the  colour  of  sunset  sky,  108. 

BANDED  STRUCTURE,  in  rocks,  143. 

BAPTISM,  chimes  in  rejoicing  for,  at  Maglans,  68. 

BDELLIUM,  meaning  of  the  word,  90. 

BELL- ALP,  hotel  lately  built  on,  its  relation  to  ancient  hospice  of 

Simplon,  159. 

BELLS,  sweetness  of  their  sound  among  mountains,  68. 
BEAUTY,  more  at  hand  than  can  ever  be  seen,  85. 
BENEDICT,  St. ,  laments  decline  of  his  order,  156. 


248  INDEX. 

BERNARD,  St.,  labours  of,  106  ;  sermons  of,  114  ;  his  coming  to  help 

Dante,  157. 

BERNE,  town  of,  scenery  in  tys  canton,  10. 
BIONNASSAY,  aiguille  of,  its  beauty,  21.    In  the  24th  line  of  that  page, 

for  'buttresses,'  read  '  buttress.' 
BLUE,  how  represented  in  Heraldry,  106. 
BISCHOF,  GUSTAV,  facts  of  mineral  formation  collected  by,  as  yet 

insufficient,  136. 

BOWERBANK,  Mr.,  exhaustive  examination  of  flint  fossils  by,  137. 
BRECCIA,  (but  for  '  breccia,'  in  these  pages,  read  '  conglomerate  ')  of 

the  outmost  Bernese  Alps,  14,  15 
BRIENTZ,  lake  and  valley  of,  12. 
BRUNIG,  pass  of,  12. 

,  Mr.  J.,  drawing  in  Venice  by,  117. 


CARBUNCLE,  meaning  of  the  stone  in  Heraldry,  109. 
CHALCEDONY,  formation  of,  133  ;  general  account  of,  173. 
CHALK,  formation  of,  in  the  Alps,  11. 

CHAMOUNI,  valley  of,  its  relation  to  the  valley-system  of  the  Alps,  12. 
CHANNELS  of  rivers,  formation  of,  61,  193  ;  and  compare  with  p.  61, 

Mr.  Clifton  Ward's  account  of  the  denudation  of  the  Lake  dis- 

trict, Geological  Magazine,  vol.  vii.,  p.  16. 
CHEDE,  lake  of,  its  destruction,  33. 
CLEAVAGE,  general  discussion  of  subject  opens,  225  ;  definition  of  the 

several  kinds  of,  238. 
CLIFFS  of  the  Bay  of  Uri,  72. 
CLIFTON  WARD,  Rev.  Mr.,  justice  of  his  observations  on  glaciation 

of  Lake  district,  35  ;  examination  of  agate  structure  by,  137  ; 

continued,  177,  209  ;  completed,  214  ;  note  on  cleavage  by,  227. 
CLUSE,  valley  of,  in  Savoy,  described,  69. 
COLOUR,  perception  of,  its  relation  to  health  and  temper,  101,  116  ; 

divisions  and  order  of,  104  ;  Heraldic,  antiquity  of,  105. 
COMO,  lake  and  valley  of,  13. 
CONGLOMERATE  of  the  Alps,  15  ;  and  in  the  25th  line  of  that  page,  for 

'  breccia,'  read  '  conglomerate.' 
CONISTON,  rocks  and  lake  of,  193. 
CONTORTION  OF  STRATA,  15,  18  ;  observations  on  by  Mr.  Henry  Wil- 

lett,  147  ;  assumptions  respecting  the  "Plissement  de  la  croute 

terrestre,"  by  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  155  ;  general  question  of,  197  — 

199;   practical  experiments  in  imitation  of,  201,  228.     Compare 

Saussure,  Voyages,  §35,  1801,  1802. 


INDEX.  £49 

CONTROVERSY,  fatal  consequences  of,  1. 

CRYSTAL,  Scriptural  references  to,  91 ;  construction  of,  97. 

CRYSTALLIZATION,  mystery  of,  97 ;  terms  of  its  description,  177. 

Compare  '  Ethics  of  the  Dust/  passim  ;  but  especially  chap.  iii. 
CURVE  of  ice- velocities,  61. 

DANTE,  use  of,  the  Divina  Commedia  in  mental  purification,  156. 

DEBATE,  mischievousness  of,  to  young  people,  85. 

DEFILES,  transverse,  of  Alps,  12. 

DENUDATION,  first  opening  of  discussion  upon,  184  ;  obscurity  of  the 
geological  expression,  186 ;  appparent  violence  of  its  indiscrimi- 
nate action,  197.  See  above,  CHANNELS  ;  and  compare  '  Modern 
Painters,'  vol.  iv.,  p.  155. 

DESIGN  of  ornament,  how  obtainable,  119. 

'DEUCALION  '  and  '  Proserpina,'  reasons  for  choice  of  these  names  for 
the  author's  final  works,  4. 

DEVIL,  influence  of  the,  in  modern  education,  205. 

DEW,  Arabian  delight  in,  90. 

DIAMOND,  its  meaning  in  Heraldry,  110  ;  story  of  diamond  necklace, 
moral  of,  118. 

DILATATION,  theory  of,  in  glaciers,  its  absurdity,  163  ;  the  bed  of  the 
Mer  de  Glace,  considered  as  a  thermometer  tube,  164. 

DOVER,  cliffs  of,  operations  which  would  be  needful  to  construct 
Alps  with  them,  21 ;  imagined  results  of  their  softness,  197. 

EDINBURGH  CASTLE,  geology  of  its  rock,  29. 

EMERALD,  meaning  of,  in  Heraldry,  108. 

ENGLISH,  how  to  write  it  best,  201. 

EROSION,  how  far  the  idea  of  it  is  exaggerated,  34. 

ESDRAS,  second  book  of,  curious  verse  in  its  5th  chapter,  probable 

interpretation  of,  5. 

ESSENCE  (real  being)  of  things,  is  in  what  they  can  do  and  suffer,  87. 
'EVENINGS  AT  HOME,'  quoted,  23. 
EXCESS  in  quantity,  harm  of,  in  Museum  collections  for  educational 

purposes,  130. 

EXPANSION.    See  DILATATION. 
EYES,  their  use,  a  nobler  art  than  that  of  using  microscopes,  23  ;  colour 

of  Athena's,  108. 

TACTS,  how  few,  generally  trustworthy,  yet  ascertained  respecting 
mineral  formation,  134. 


250  INDEX. 

FARADAY,  Professor,  discovery  of  regelation  by,  38. 

FISSURES,  in  chalk  containing  flints,  and  traversing  the  flints,  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Henry  Willett,  147,  149. 

FLINT,  essential  characters  of,  87  ;  account  of,  carefully  instituted  by 
Mr.  H.  Willett,  135 ;  no  one  knows  yet  how  secreted,  137 ;  dis- 
placed veins  of,  145,  147. 

FORBES,  Professor  James,  of  Edinburgh,  discovers  the  law  of  glacier 
motion,  47 ;  his  survey  of  the  Mer  de  Glace,  79 ;  general  notices 
of,  37,  76  ;  the  Author's  meeting  with,  152. 

FLOWING,  difficulty  of  defining  the  word,  50. 

FLUIDS,  the  laws  of  their  motion  not  yet  known,  83. 

FRACTURES  of  flint,  difficulties  in  explaining,  147 — 149. 

GEOLOGY,  the  Author's  early  attachment  to,  3  ;  not  needful  to  artists, 
but  rather  injurious,  8  ;  modern  errors  in  developing,  71. 

GLACIERS,  are  fluent  bodies,  36  ;  do  not  cut  their  beds  deeper,  but  fill 
them  up,  37,  63  ;  original  deposition  of,  39  ;  summary  of  laws  of 
motion  in,  48  ;  rate  of  motion  in,  how  little  conceivable  in  slow- 
ness, 49  ;  drainage  of  higher  valleys  by,  49 ;  rising  of  their  sur- 
face in  winter,  how  accounted  for,  82  ;  false  theories  respecting, 
Illustrated,  162 — 164.  Compare  also  *  Fors  Clavigera,'  Letters 
XXXIV.,  pp.  175—181,  and  XXXV.,  p.  200. 

GOLD,  special  mechanical  qualities  of,  74 ;  need  for  instruction  in  its 
use,  95  ;  mystery  of  its  origin,  96  ;  nomenclature  of  its  forms,  128. 

GONDO,  defile  of,  in  the  Simplon  pass,  12. 

GOOD  AND  EVIL  in  spiritual  natures,  how  discernible,  25,  205. 

GREEK-ENGLISH  words,  barbarism  of,  202. 

GREEN,  how  represented  in  Heraldry,  108. 

GREY,  meaning  of,  in  Heraldry,  110. 

GULA,  mediaeval  use  of  the  word,  114. 

GULES,  meaning  of  the  colour  so  called,  in  Heraldry,  112. 

HONEY,  use  of,  in  experiments  on  glacier  motion,  81,  199. 
HYACINTH,  the  precious  stone  so  called,  meaning  of,  in  Heraldry,  109. 
HERALDRY,  nobleness  of,  as  a  language,  115  ;  order  of  colours  in,  105  ; 

of  the  sky,  121. 
HYALITE,  transition  of,  into  chalcedony,  171 — 174. 

ICE,  (of  glaciers)  will  stretch,  56  ;  is  both  plastic  and  viscous,  75.     See 

GLACIER. 
INTERLACHEN,  village  of,  stands  on  the  soil  deposited  by  the  stream 

from  Lauterbrunnen,  21 ;  duty  of  geologists  at,  237. 


INDEX.  23 

IRIS  OF  THE  EARTH,  84 ;  the  Messenger,  104. 
IMPS,  not  to  be  bottled  by  modern  chemists,  204. 
IACINTH.    See  HYACINTH. 

JASPER,  Heraldic  meaning  of,  107. 

JEWELS,  holiness  of,  95,  101  ;  delighted  in  by  religious  painters,  119 ; 

duty  of  distributing,  119. 

JONES,  Mr.  Rupert,  summary  of  mineralogical  work  by,  137. 
JUDD,  Mr.  J.  W.,  notice  of  geology  of  Edinburgh  by,  29. 
JUNGFRAU,  view  of ,  from  Castle  of  Manfred,  287. 
JURA  mountains,  view  of  the  Alps  from,  10  ;  section  of,  in  relation  to 

Alps,  11,  235  ;  limestone  formation  of,  14. 

KENDAL,  town  of,  scenery  near,  179,  180. 
KINNOULL,  hill  of,  near  Perth,  agates  in,  98. 
KNIGHTHOOD,  Christian,  its  faithfulness  to  Peace,  101. 
KNOTS  of  siliceous  rock,  nature  of,  138. 

KNOWLEDGE,  how  shortened  by  impatience,  and  blighted  by  debate, 
85. 

LAKES,  level  of,  among  Alps,  13  ;  evacuation  of,  192  ;  English  district 

of,  section  through,  224. 
LANDSCAPE,  the  study  of,  little  recommended  by   the  Author  at 

Oxford,  7. 
LANGUAGE,  scientific,  how  to  be  mended,  202  ;  dependence  of,  for  its 

beauty,  on  moral  powers,  115. 
LAUTERBRUNNEN,  valley  of,  21,  237. 
LAVA,  definition  of,  167  ;  depth  of,  168. 
LENTICULAR  CURIOSITY,  vileness  of,  24. 
LESLIE,  Mr.  Stephen,  reference  to  unadvised  statements  by,  respecting 

the  achievements  of  Alpine  Club,  9. 

LIMESTONE,  Jura  and  Mountain,  general  notes  on,  14,  235,  236. 
LUCERNE,  lake  of,  reason  of  its  cruciform  plan,  12. 
LUNGREN,  lake  of,  its  unusual  elevation,  13. 
LYELL,  Sir  Charles,  final  result  of  his  work,  27,  31. 

MAGGIORE,  lake  and  valley  of,  13. 

MAGLANS,  village  of,  in  Savoy,  scenery  near,  69. 

MALLESON,  the  Rev.  F.  A.,  discovers  rare  form  of  Coniston  slate,  195. 

MANNA,  (food  of  the  Israelites,)  reasons  for  its  resemblance  to  crystal, 

90. 
MENTAL  PERCEPTION,  how  dependent  on  moral  character,  116. 


252  INDEX. 

MENTAL- WORK,  history  of,  proposal  for  its  illustration,  86. 

MICROSCOPE,  mistaken  use  of  the,  opposed  to  use  of  eyes,  23. 

MINERALOGY,  principles  of  arrangement  in,  adapted  to  popular  intel- 
ligence, 124  ;  present  state  of  the  science,  134. 

MODERNISM,  the  degradation  of  England  by  it,  116. 

'MODERN  PAINTERS,'  (the  Author's  book,  so  called,)  contained  the 
first  truthful  delineations  of  the  Alps,  154  ;  the  Author's  designs 
for  its  republication,  4,  8  ;  mistake  in  it,  caused  by  thinking  in- 
stead of  observing,  41. 

MOTION,  proportionate,  how  to  study,  54  ;  rate  of,  in  glaciers,  47. 

MOUNTAINS,  how  to  see,  and  whence,  9. 

MUSEUMS,  arrangement  of,  general  principles  respecting,  130  ;  special 
plan  of  that  at  Sheffield,  86,  123. 

MUSCULAR  ENERGY,  not  an  all-sufficient  source  of  happiness,  or  cri- 
terion of  taste,  9. 

NATIONS,  lower  types  of,  without  language  or  conscience,  116. 
NIAGARA,  misleading  observations  upon,  by  the  school  of  Sir  Charles 

Lyell,  31. 

NOISES  in  modern  travelling,  67. 
NOVELTY  the  worst  enemy  of  knowledge,  84. 
NUTS  of  silica,  and  almonds,  why  so  called,  138. 

ONYX,  importance  of,  in  the  history  of  the  Jews,  92,  93;  general  ac- 
count of,  93,  100. 
OR,  the  Heraldic  metal,  meaning  of,  105. 

PARADISE,  treasures  of  its  first  river,  91. 

PASSION,  evil  effects  of,  on  bodily  health,  1.     The  reader  would  do 

well  to  study  on  this  subject,  with  extreme  care,  the  introductory 

clauses  of  Sir  Henry  Thompson's  paper  on  Food,  in  the  28th 

number  of  the  '  Nineteenth  Century.' 
PASTE,  experiments  in,  on  compression  of  strata,  197. 
PEARLS,  of  great  and  little  price,  relative  estimate  of  by  English 

ladies,  119;  Heraldic  meaning  of,  110. 
PEBBLES,  Scotch,  nature  of,  unknown,  72.     See  AGATE. 
PERIODS,  the  three  great,  of  the  Earth's  construction,  27. 
PHILLIPS,  Professor,  of  Oxford,  72;  section  of  Lake  district  by,  224. 
PLAIN  of  Switzerland,  north  of  the  Alps,  its  structure,  11. 
PLANS,  the  Author's,  of  future  work,  2.     (I  observe  many  readers  have 

passed  this  sentence  without  recognizing  its  irony.) 


INDEX.  %06 

PLANTAGENET,  Geoffrey,  shield  of,  110. 

PLASTICITY,  the  term  defined,  74. 

POOLS,  how  kept  deep  in  streams,  dubitable,  187. 

POVERTY,  how  to  be  honourably  mitigated,  131. 

PRESTWICH,  Professor,  of  Oxford,  72. 

PRIORITY  in  discovery,  never  cared  for  by  the  Author,  3. 

PROGRESS,  certainty  of,  to  be  secured  in  science  only  by  modesty, 
133. 

PROTEUS,  the  seal-herdsman,  113. 

PURPLE,  modern  errors  respecting  the  colour,  114.  Compare  HYA- 
CINTH. 

PURPURE,  the  Heraldic  colour,  meaning  of,  109. 

RAM'S  SKINS,  for  covering  of  Jewish  Tabernacle,  114. 
RED,  how  represented  in  Heraldry,  106. 

REGELATION,  theory  of,  as  causing  the  motion  of  glaciers, — its  ab- 
surdity, 164. 

RENDU,  Bishop  of  Amiens,  his  keenness  of  sense,  45. 
RHINE,  upper  valley  of,  13. 
RHONE,  upper  valley  of,  13. 
ROCKS,  wet  and  dry  formation  of,  135. 
ROOD,  Professor,  Author  receives  assistance  from,  83. 
ROSA,  Monte,  the  chain  of  Alps  to  the  north  of  it,  151. 
ROSE,  the  origin  of  the  Persian  word  for  red,  106. 
ROSSBERG,  fall  of,  how  illustrating  its  form,  15. 

SABLE,  the  Heraldic  colour,  meaning  of,  110. 

SCARLET,  the  Heraldic  colour,  meaning  of,  107. 

SCIENCE,  modern,  duties  of,  26,  180;  modern  vileness  and  falseness 

of,  204;  true,  how  beginning  and  ending,  208.     (In  that  page, 

line  13,  for  '  science,'  read  '  morals.') 
SCIENTIFIC  PERSONS,  how  different  from  artists,  25. 
SEAL-SKINS,  use  of,  in  the  Jewish  Tabernacle,  113. 
SELFISHNESS,  the  Author's,  171. 
SENSE,  in  morals,  evil  of  substituting  analysis  for,  25. 
SENSES,  the  meaning  of  being  in  or  out  of  them,  25. 
SENSIBILITY,  few  persons  have  any  worth  appealing  to,  8. 
SENTIS,  Hoche,  of  Appenzell,  structure  of,  11,  16. 
SILICA  in  lavas,  167;  varieties  of,  defined,  169. 
SINAI,  desert  of,  coldness  of  occasional  climate  in,  90. 
SIMPLON,  village  of,  150;  Hospice  of,  160. 


254  INDEX. 

SLATE,  cleavage  of,  generally  discussed,  225.      Compare  'Modern 

Painters,'  Part  v.,  chapters  viii. — x. 
SLOTH,  (the  nocturnal  animal^  misery  of,  205. 
SNOW,  Alpine,  structure  of,  41,  45,  47. 
SORBY,  Mr.,  value  of  his  work,  136. 
SOVEREIGN,  (the  coin,)  imagery  on,  88.    * 
SQUIRREL,  beauty  of,  and  relation  to  man,  207. 
STALAGMITE,  incrustation  of,  134. 
STANDING  of  aiguilles,  method  of,  to  be  learned,  21. 
STOCKHORN,  of  Thun,  structure  of,  11. 
STONES,  loose  in  the  Park,  one  made  use  of,  87;  precious,  their  real 

meaning,  118. 
STREAMS,  action  of,  187.     See  CHANNELS  ;   and  compare  '  Modern 

Painters,'  vol.  x.,  pp.  91,  95. 

STUDER,  Professor,  reference  to  his  work  on  the  Alps,  17,  224. 
SUN,  Heraldic  type  of  Justice,  105,  106. 

TABERNACLE,  the  Jewish  fur-coverings  of,  113  ;  the  spiritual,  of  God, 
in  man,  120. 

TEMERAIRE,  the  fighting,  at  Trafalgar,  104. 

TENNY,  the  Heraldic  colour,  meaning  of,  107. 

THEORY,  mischief  of,  in  scientific  study,  134 ;  the  work  of  '  Deuca- 
lion' exclusive  of  it,  21. 

THINKING,  not  to  be  trusted,  when  seeing  is  possible,  42. 

THOUGHTS,  worth  having,  come  to  us ;  we  cannot  come  at  tJiem,  67. 

THUN,  lake  and  vale  of,  12  ;  passage  of  the  lake  by  modern  tourists, 
18  ;  old-fashioned  manners  of  its  navigation,  19. 

TIME,  respect  clue  to,  in  forming  collections  of  objects  for  study,  181. 

TOPAZ,  Heraldic  meaning  of,  105. 

TORRENTS,  action  of;  in  forming  their  beds,  debated,  81. 

TOWN  LIFE,  misery  of,  208. 

TRUTH,  ultimate  and  mediate,  differing  character  of,  111. 

TURNER,  J.  M.  W.,  Alpine  drawings  by,  9. 

TYLOR,  Mr.  Alfred,  exhaustive  analysis  of  hill  curves  by,  239. 

TYNDALL,  Professor,  experiments  by,  42 ;  various  reference  to  his 
works,  53,  58,  80,  160,  226,  233. 

TYRRWHITT,  the  Rev.  St.  John,  sketches  in  Arabia  by,  90. 

VALLEYS,  lateral  and  transverse,  of  Alps,  12 ;  names  descriptive  of, 

in  England  how  various,  180. 
VALTELLINE,  relation  of,  to  Alps,  13. 


INDEX. 

VANITY  of  prematurely  systematic  science,  123. 

VERT,  the  Heraldic  colour,  meaning  of,  108. 

VIA  MALA,  defile  of,  12,  20. 

VIOLLET-LE-DUC,  unwary  geology  by,  154. 

VISCOSITY,  definition  of,  55,  74 ;  first  experiments  on  viscous  motion 

of  viscous  fluids  by  Professor  Forbes,  52. 
VOLCANOS,  our  personal  interest  in  the  phenomena  of,  in  this  world, 

aos. 

WOMAN,  supremely  inexplicable,  99. 

WILLETT,  Mr.  Henry,  investigations  of  flint  undertaken  by,  135  ;  pro- 
ceeded with,  141. 

WAVES  of  glacier  ice,  contours  of,  in  melting,  165. 

WOOD,  the  Rev.  Mr.,  method  of  his  teaching,  206;  and  compare 
1  Fors  Clavigera,'  Letter  LI. 

WOODWARD,  Mr.  Henry,  experiment  by,  on  contorted  strata,  17. 

WOODS,  free  growth  of,  in  Savoy,  70. 

WEATHERING  of  Coniston  slate,  195. 

YELLOW,  how  represented  in  Heraldry,  105. 
YEWDALE,  near  Coniston,  scenery  of,  184,  191,  194. 
YEWDALE  CRAG,  structure  of,  195 ;  a  better  subject  of  study  thai 
crags  in  the  moon,  203. 


AN  INITIAL  PINE  OP  25  CENTS 


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LD  21-95m-7,'37 


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